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Art by @symatt on Twitter.

This post was originally going to be a submission to Kobold Quarterly.

The Midgard Bestiary for 4E contained wonderful monsters that can threaten the lives of adventurers but like most 4E monsters, they are usually dealt with quickly. This article discusses parasites, tiny creatures that make up for their diminutive size by being a lingering menace to a single hero. Teamwork is needed to remove the threat before it is too late.

Each monster entry has an attack which is used to attach the parasite to a PC (henceforth known as the host). When attached, the parasitic traits are activated. The traits consist of a disease track and sometimes a trait with a constant effect. The disease track contains the serious drawback to having the parasite and is used to keep track of the progress in removing the parasite. The constant effects are non-combat and designed to inspire role playing.

The host fights off the parasite by making Endurance checks at the intervals noted in the entry. The allies of the host help remove the creature by making a skill check for an appropriate action they have taken to help fend off the parasite since the last Endurance check. For example, creating a salve that relaxes a Wizardbane Leech’s grip on the host. The host gains a cumulative +1 bonus to the Endurance check for each ally that is successful in their check. After the host has succeeded or failed enough times with the Endurance check, the parasite leaves and the parasitic traits are no longer in effect.

Geastrum Fata
This fungus has pearlescent bulbs on the end of four-foot tall stalks, which are filled with fungal spores. When the fungus senses a creature close by, it expels the spores which are usually breathed in by animals. Bouts of stress cause the host to teleport, coughing up spores in the process. This trick has allowed the fungus to thrive over a wider area than more mundane fungi.

Wizardbane Leech
These purple hued leeches are noted for their long blades, which grip close to the bone making it extremely hard for them to be removed from their victims. True to their name, they are drawn to magic users, latching onto them and soaking up arcane energy, weakening the effects of spells.

Ear Seeker
This insect lives in wood (including dungeon doors) until an unsuspecting creature gets close, when the insect will try and slip into the creature’s ear, travelling to the brain to lay eggs. Once hatched, the offspring eat brain cells causing irrational behaviour, such as attacking indiscriminately or babbling incoherently.

Blood Spiders
Despite being smaller than a fingernail, just one blood spider can be responsible for killing a Hill Giant. These spiders live in woodlands, where they find mammals to lay their eggs inside. The eggs hatch in the bloodstream, allowing newborns to engorge themselves on blood until they can survive outside. They then make their way to the skin, bursting through all at once. The sudden appearance of dozens of red flecked black spiders is a disturbing but wondrous sight.

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Omico
Omico are similar to Mimics, but usually masquerade as a weapon or a piece of armor. As soon as they sense an opportunity to touch a creature, they change into their natural gooey grey form and absorb themselves through the skin. They then drain the warm water from the host, excreting a liquid that gradually hardens, petrifying the body. Usually found in dungeons, a tell-tale sign of the presence of Omico are statues of their victims, such as Goblins or adventurers.

Stage 3: When the host rolls a 1 or 2 on an attack roll, they are Dazed until the end of their next turn.

Continue reading »]]> Important note: this article discusses the use of CBLoader, a Windows program of questionable legality, to modify the core character generation rules of D&D 4e. This application reverse engineers the data used by the no longer supported offline character builder, and can be used to download fan versions of the D&D material released since the Essentials books, an action that may be viewed as being illegal depending on your country.

As a follow up to my thoughts on D&D Next, I started exploring methods of changing D&D 4e so that it had some of the aspects of Next, namely Bounded Accuracy and more emphasis on skills and less on combat.

While on paper, this can be an easy exercise, in reality, the sheer number of feats and powers mean building characters with these changes is difficult, and as such, I decided to try and edit the offline character builder to see if it could do these changes for me.

Bounded Accuracy

A big selling point in D&D Next is bounded accuracy, the idea that characters don’t automatically improve as they advance in levels, and magic items are not essential to a characters ability to hold their own in a fight. Dark Sun in 4e actually made the first step towards this, relying on the inherent bonuses rules, whereby a character can either gain a benefit from a magic item, or automatically gain the same numerical benefit to attacks or defences at a given level.4$e monster maths, while still slightly broken post the MM3 changes, kinda relies on the character improving, so in order to replicate bounded accuracy, I would turn inherent bonuses on, and only give a magic item when absolutely deserved.

However, one of the core pieces of maths in 4e is the 1/2 level bonus, accounting for a +1 increase to attack rolls, skill checks, defenses, passive perception/insight, and initiative every 2 levels. This rule is what essential means every character in 4e remains balanced, so that even if you are not trained in a skill, you continue to improve and can be useful to a party.

Its also incredibly easy to change!

In the 02-base.part file used by CBLoader to define the base rules, you’ll find a <statadd name=”HALF-LEVEL” value=”+1″ /> in the rules for every even numbered level. Simply removing this line, saving the file and running CBLoader removes this 1/2 level bonus. In the heroic tier, its removal is barely noticeable. By level 10 your defences, skills and attacks will only be 5 less, and is likely to only change the odds of you hitting from roughly 2/3rds of the time to 1/2 the time. By the end of epic though, a +15 discrepancy will ensure that epic tier monsters like Orcus are a truly terrifying threat!

Skills

An accusation that has constantly been levelled at 4e was that it was too focused on combat. With only a small percent of utility powers being designed for out of combat use, no backgrounds in the original rules etc, and no ‘crafting’ system in the skill list, it could be considered a fair accusation. But then gain, OD&D didn’t even have a skill system in the core rules, so people who claim 4e is not really D&D because of its combat focus can go fuck themselves…

Backgrounds in Next might or might not be part of the core character generation, I don’t think Mearls L&L articles have made that clear yet. Since they exist in 4e, lets make sure people select them! Personally, I find backgrounds as presented in PHB2 and after pretty boring – gain either a skill as a class skill that you can choose, or a +2 bonus to the skill, or gain an additional language choice. Luckily, they re not the only type of background released for 4e.

The first ‘adventure path’, Scales of War, introduced the concept of backgrounds in 4e, and started with a handful of flavoursome choices, which included a crafting system. Many of these were a +1 bonus to two or more skills, or a +3 in certain situations, or the ability to change the rules themselves like it taking four failed death saves to kill you. These backgrounds have conveniently being ignored by WotC in favour of the phb2 boring kind, whereas for most of my pre-gens for UK D&D Tweetup events, I use these originals. And I suggest you do too!

But given we’ve reduced skill enhancement with the bounded accuracy change, what else can we do to make skills more important? Again, WotC have already done half of the job, bringing us Skill Powers in phb3. Given how most utilities are combat focused and the game itself is combat focused, skill powers have been a fairly unpopular choice. However, its a fairly simple change to the 02-base.part file rules to force the selection of a skill power at level 2.

We could either make it the only choice (thus limiting the number of overall powers), or make it an additional choice… For now, we’ll presume the latter, and add <select type=”Power” name=”Skill Utility 2″ number=”1″ Category=”$$LEVEL,Skill Power” />

(NOTE: inside the character builder, it will allow you to select a skill power, but the description in the list of powers will say <Lose A Power> – something to do with a hardcoded limit?)

Another option, would be to allow an additional feat, say at level 4, to give skill focus. For this change, I created a new file 50-SkillFocus.part, and copied all the skill focus feats from the 09-Feats.part file. I then added a necessary header and footer tags, and <RulesElement name=”Skill Focus” type=”Category” internal-id=”ID_INTERNAL_CATEGORY_SKILLFOCUS” source=”Core” ></RulesElement> to the top of the file, and <Category> ID_INTERNAL_CATEGORY_SKILLFOCUS </Category> in every skill focus feat. Finally, I added <select type=”Feat” name=”Skill Focus” number=”1″ Category=”ID_INTERNAL_CATEGORY_SKILLFOCUS” /> to the level 4 rules section of 02-base.part.

Another option, would be to grant a +1 bonus to all the characters trained skills, and I’ve chosen to do this at levels 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30. For this change, simply add the following block into 02-base.part to the level rules section you want to grant it in.

<statadd name=”Acrobatics Misc” value=”+1″ requires=”Acrobatics Skill Training” />

<statadd name=”Arcana Misc” value=”+1″ requires=”Arcana Skill Training” />

<statadd name=”Athletics Misc” value=”+1″ requires=”Athletics Skill Training” />

<statadd name=”Bluff Misc” value=”+1″ requires=”Bluff Skill Training” />

<statadd name=”Diplomacy Misc” value=”+1″ requires=”Diplomacy Skill Training” />

<statadd name=”Dungeoneering Misc” value=”+1″ requires=”Dungeoneering Skill Training” />

<statadd name=”Endurance Misc” value=”+1″ requires=”Endurance Skill Training” />

<statadd name=”Heal Misc” value=”+1″ requires=”Heal Skill Training” />

<statadd name=”History Misc” value=”+1″ requires=”History Skill Training” />

<statadd name=”Insight Misc” value=”+1″ requires=”Insight Skill Training” />

<statadd name=”Intimidate Misc” value=”+1″ requires=”Intimidate Skill Training” />

<statadd name=”Nature Misc” value=”+1″ requires=”Nature Skill Training” />

<statadd name=”Perception Misc” value=”+1″ requires=”Perception Skill Training” />

<statadd name=”Religion Misc” value=”+1″ requires=”Religion Skill Training” />

<statadd name=”Stealth Misc” value=”+1″ requires=”Stealth Skill Training” />

<statadd name=”Streetwise Misc” value=”+1″ requires=”Streetwise Skill Training” />

<statadd name=”Thievery Misc” value=”+1″ requires=”Thievery Skill Training” />

Expertise Feats.

How many of your players or pre-gens take a weapon or implement expertise feat at level 1 or 2 to ensure that they keep up with regular hitters like the slayer? By level 2, its very easy to have a slayer with a +14 attack roll, while a mage might still be hanging back with a +5 or +6. And like i’ve said before, players hate to miss. So an expertise feat is often the first choice a player, gaining that extra +1 and another benefit.

For probably 2 years now, i’ve let my players take an expertise feat for free at level one. For some classes, such as the hunter, this is slightly overpowered, since they already gain an expertise feat as part of their class features, but on the whole, its a change that means that characters can use their other feats for more interesting choices – especially feats like the Disciple Of… added in the Essentials books.

Putting this into the character builder is a similar change to the skill focus listed above. The way I have done it is to create a new 51-ExpertiseFeats.part file, containing the necessary headers/footers, and a copy of all the Expertise feats from 09-feats.part. I’ve then add <RulesElement name=”Expertise Feats” type=”Category” internal-id=”ID_INTERNAL_CATEGORY_EXPERTISEFEATS” source=”Core” ></RulesElement> to the top, and <Category> ID_INTERNAL_CATEGORY_EXPERTISEFEATS </Category> to each feat. Finally, I added <select type=”Feat” name=”Free Expertise” number=”1″ Category=”ID_INTERNAL_CATEGORY_EXPERTISEFEATS” /> to the level 1 rules of the 02-base.part file.

Weapon Choice

One thing I should really have included in my list of likes in D&D Next is the fact that weapon proficiency stats have gone! Weapon proficiency, an aspect of the attack roll, is now directly tied to class, and makes weapon choice not dictated by the weapons accuracy, and instead only by its damage and coolness factor. This has been a major issue for me in 4e, because I have some really cool minis i’d love to use, but statistically, they suck!

This is a change i’m still trying to perfect, but my idea is this: Defenders in 4e should always have a +3 proficiency with a weapon. Strikers should be dependent on the weapon, i.e. as it currently is, while leaders should be +2, and controllers, who are generally non melee, such as the mage and sorcerer should be +1. This isn’t perfect though, because the Bladesinger is a melee controller, and classic magic user weapons like the staff, dagger and sling should be +2 imho. Anyway, for the moment, I’ve only granted the bonus to fighters/knights/slayers, by adding the following line to the grants rules section of 11-fighter.part. <statadd name=”weapon:attack” value=”+3″ type=”proficiency” /> The reason this works is because the offline character builder is hardcoded to use the highest bonus if multiple are available, and so it will always choose the +3 bonus, and as such, this makes setting it to +1 for controllers impossible as far as I can tell.

Making the Human Rock

It might have got nerfed in a recent Next playtest, but for several packets, the human has been designed to be the best stat’ed, with it getting +1 to all stats, AND +1 to one additional stat.

This is easy to replicate in 4e, by simple adding the following six lines below the humans <select type=”Race Ability Bonus” number=”1″ /> line in 06-races.part.

<grant name=”ID_INTERNAL_RACE_ABILITY_BONUS_CHARISMA” type=”Race Ability Bonus” />

<grant name=”ID_INTERNAL_RACE_ABILITY_BONUS_DEXTERITY” type=”Race Ability Bonus” />

<grant name=”ID_INTERNAL_RACE_ABILITY_BONUS_CONSTITUTION” type=”Race Ability Bonus” />

<grant name=”ID_INTERNAL_RACE_ABILITY_BONUS_WISDOM” type=”Race Ability Bonus” />

<grant name=”ID_INTERNAL_RACE_ABILITY_BONUS_INTELLIGENCE” type=”Race Ability Bonus” />

<grant name=”ID_INTERNAL_RACE_ABILITY_BONUS_STRENGTH” type=”Race Ability Bonus” />

Given the power of this change to humans in 4e, I personally wouldn’t do this!

Die PC Die

One aspect of D&D Next is a much lower hit point total, where a level 1 character can survive about 2 average hits, compared to 4 hits for a 4e level 1 pc. Given a slightly higher average damage output in 4e, I personally wouldn’t change it to Nexts level of hit points, but it’s a simple change to take it from 10 + cons stat, to 10 + cons mod. Replace <statadd name=”Hit Points” value=”+Constitution” type=”Level 1″ /> with <statadd name=”Hit Points” value=”+ABILITYMOD(con)” type=”Level 1″ />.

Continue reading »]]> Having had the chance to run the first public outing of D&D Next in the UK, and having been involved in both some of the behind the scenes testing and with the public packets, I’ve had 16 months to play with the rules in various forms. I thought that with D&D Next getting its first mainstream outing due next month with Vault of the Dracolich on Free RPG Day, that now is a good time to consider what I do and don’t like about the system, and in a companion article, figure out a way to hack some of the changes into D&D 4e.

What I Like:

1. Its D&D

It seems a strange one, but its an important one to start with. WotC have stuck with what makes D&D… well… D&D. We’re talking about d20′s, 6 stats from 3 to 18 with modifiers, AC, HP, spells, saving throws, turn undead. The core rules of D&D Next are incredibly streamline, and fairly historic. They could have taken a risk, like they did with feats in 3e, and powers in 4e, and throw some crazy new mechanics into the mix, but they kept it classic.

2. The Rules Don’t Get In The Way

I’ve lost track of the number of games I’ve played, but other than one single game, where we purposely tried to break the rules and nitpicked them to death, the rules have barely been ‘noticed’. Sure, we use them, but beyond a quick reference check on things like turn undead or healers kits or grapple, we don’t find that we have to stop to re-read them. To me, thats the sign of a well designed core.

3. Advantage

While the Advantage mechanic is pretty much just a rip off of the Avengers’ shtick from 4e, it is part of the core, and works well. Mathematically, its suspect, but let’s be honest, we like rolling dice, and theres that wonderful moment when your first roll is a 3 and your second roll is a 17 and you hit.

4. Skill Dice

Skills are a difficult system to get right in any rpg, with a high stated but unskilled character often having as good a chance as a poorly stated but trained character. Skill dice, like Advantage, plays off the fact that gamers like to roll dice, and provides a nice random element. I’m not sure if it ever made it to a public playtest, but at one point, skill dice were d4′s and the rogue got to roll d6′s instead. I liked that, it made the rogue have a slight benefit at skills.

5. Clerics/Paladins

When I first saw the paladin, I was unsure about where it would fit in, it looked to similar in power to the fighter martially, and the cleric in spell casting. However, there is just enough to make them all different. Deities and Oaths are brilliantly written, I love they fact that the deities are not specific to a campaign world and instead give real world and rpg history examples. Even the core details aren’t set – words like primarily, usually, often, sometimes… means that DM’s can easily adapt these to their own campaign. I love that the Blackguard was included right from the start. I love the amount of choice in deities and oaths. They are by far my favourite classes to play in D&D Next.

6. Druids

What isn’t there to like about the druid in D&D Next?. It takes inspiration from the recent 4e heroes of the feywild book, its got shape changing. Its got spells, including as one of my friends puts it… The ‘S’ spell… Shillelagh. Its been a great class to watch in action.

7. Adventures

I got an early look at Blingdenstone, and it was pretty good, but the work they did to improve it was great. Then theres the fact they included Caves of Chaos, the quintessential sandbox first adventure. And Isle of Dread, the adventure that got me into D&D originally. And theres yet more cool stuff coming, with some great little ideas from Greg Bilsland and Chris Perkins that probably won’t make most people go ‘ooooh’, but were exactly what i’d have done or were so ingenious as to make me wonder how I ever coped before it.

8. Monster Hit Dice

As you’ll see below, I hate hit dice for pc’s, but for monsters, it means you can have some variety in the relative strength of a monster, giving you a minimum hp, an average hp, and a max hp. I think Hit Dice have always been swingy, and i’d tweak them slightly, but still, I like having the option.

9. Arcane Recovery

Wizards get to, once a day, recover a spell slot they’ve used during a rest. That is a brilliant mechanic that lengthens the in game day because its less dictated by the number of spells they’ve cast. A form of it was also in the earliest playtest, where they could heal OR regain a spell, and my feedback for nearly a year has been ‘bring spell recovery back’, so i’m very pleased to see it!

And now the dislike/hate.

1. Its D&D

I know this looks a bit odd, given I praised D&D Next sticking to D&D’s nearly 40 year history but… It’s D&D, and thats it.

4e really pushed the boat out on revolutionary ideas, presenting balanced classes, where everybody had something cool they could do either every round, every fight, or every day. It streamlined the rules so you only had to worry about AC, HP and the three other defences. Next removes all those advances, and goes back to D&D’s roots, adds in more defences via saves, takes a sprinkle of becmi, a sprinkle of 2e, a sprinkle of ‘skills and powers’ era, a sprinkle of 3e, a sprinkle of 4e, and mashes them together into a game that can feel incomplete and at times ill thought out. It doesn’t innovate and instead rests on the laurels of that rich 40 year history to create a game that panders more to the Old School Renaissance crowd of gamers than the fresh blood the hobby needs.

I’ve been gaming for over 20 years, and amassed a collection of books from becmi, 2e, 3e and 4e. Given the limited amount of races, classes, backgrounds, feats, spells and adventures we have in Next at the moment, I could probably go back to the BECMI era Rules Cyclopedia, and have more material at my disposal in a rules system that feels the same, but is tried and tested…

But I don’t want to do that, I want D&D Next to be new, fresh, and modern, and I feel they are failing at this…

2. Disadvantage

Remember I said up there that gamers love to roll more dice… Well, it doesn’t apply to disadvantage. As a mechanic having to roll twice and take the lowest sounds good, but in reality, you roll a dice, score a 20, a critical success… but then you roll your second, and get a 2…  THAT IS NOT A FUN MECHANIC. And given some of the fundamental class features and rules like sneak attack require you to have disadvantage, it basically removes the desire to ever use that class feature, making the development time, and selection of that class or feature pointless.

3. Rolling For Stats

Years ago, if you’d have asked me what was a important aspect of D&D character generation, i’d have said it was rolling 3d6 to get your stats. (Personally, I like 4d6, drop lowest, reroll 1′s, do this 7 times, take the 6 highest…) but as I’ve got older, and DM’ed more and more sessions, I realise just how swingy and uneven rolling stats is. For a recent playtest session, I rolled 17,11,17,18,17,16 using D&D Next’s suggested 4d6 drop lowest method… I was +2 higher on most stats than everyone else in the group, and accordingly, a +1 to hp, ac, attacks, damage higher than everyone else. I was effectively the ultimate bad ass of a pc in the party. It shouldn’t be like that. Take 4e’s route instead, make arrays and point buy the default, and offer rolling as an alternative that groups can agree to use.

4. Bounded Accuracy

Bounded Accuracy… One of the supposed big selling points of D&D Next, where you advance at a slower more controlled rate, meaning lower level monsters remain a threat for longer, while allowing the use of one or two higher level monsters with slightly increased stats to provide a real challenge. Its meant to help the balance between classes, the balance between low and high level play… But in reality, it just creates a disparity between the classes, the monsters and pcs, and those who roll well. The fighter, barbarian, monk, and paladin are all equally good at fighting thanks to bounded accuracy, and basically only differ in class features. Bounded Accuracy doesn’t just affect attacks though, it affects AC, and creates another disparity, we’ve had games where a wizard had ac 10, and a paladin had ac 19. As a dm, I know which one i’ll attack… The slow advancement will make it feel like you don’t improve, and for playtesting where our group has rarely gone above level 4, we’ve yet to see any improvement in our attacks. I hate that.

Given the average attack bonus in our group at level one is +3, it also affects your ability to hit, something i’ll address in a moment…

5. Monster Stats

I’m including this, but I don’t know whether its caused by bounded accuracy or the fact that WotC just haven’t bothered to sort out the monster maths yet, but given killing monsters is a critical part of D&D, the fact that its not right is kinda a deal breaker for me. It’s quite common to come up against monsters with better AC, HP and attack bonuses than the pcs… At level 1…

I recently ran a game where the players we’re meant to be fighting AC 16, HP 11 foot soldiers, who had a +5 to hit, and dealt 1d6+1 damage. With AC 16, our pc’s with their measly +3 attack bonus thanks to Bounded Accuracy had to roll 13 or more to hit, i.e. 3 out of 5 times the pc’s are going to miss, and players HATE missing. But then the flipside is they have a +5 to attack, and will hit the mage with ac 10 3 out of 4 times, and their minimum damage will kill him in 3 hits, and their maximum damage will kill him in 1 hit.

Monster maths is so broken that I actually find playtesting stuff difficult because it’s hard to judge if the classes are underpowered or the monster overpowered.

6. PC Hit Dice

Hit dice are a classic part of D&D, I can’t deny that, but its a part of the history that I think should not be resurrected, kinda like THAC0. Even 20 years ago when I first started, I could see how swingy rolling to determine how much HP you gained per level was, and house ruled that you got your maximum hit dice result. Given Hit Dice now determine both your hp per level, and the hp you heal during rests, this swingy nature is even worse. Much like my comment about disadvantage, it isn’t fun having to roll and getting a shitty result like a 1 or a 2. My other issue with hit dice, is that they seem too big and no real distinction between classes, stuff that classically got a dice 2 or more steps smaller than a fighter, now has one step or the same.

7. Divine Healing

I’ve put divine healing, but realistically, I could just complain about healing in D&D Next in general, because it sucks, and even from that earliest packet, has been poorly designed. Taking away second wind was stupid, it meant players didn’t have to protect and rely on the healer, and going back to only having divine healing is such a massive step backwards from 4e.

8. Spellcasting

Vancian magic should die.

I was tempted just to leave that as my only comment on this. Vancian magic didn’t make sense to me 20 years ago, and having tried to read the Dying Earth series and giving up because it was absolute drivel, I still don’t understand it anddon’t get why people hold Jack Vance’s idea that the magic words/gestures are so powerful and wiped from your memory is such a critical component of D&D. People complained about the lack of vancian magic in 4e, but realistically, thats all AEDU was, just disguised into a system that was easy to understand and even easier to use.

But vancian magic is not my only complaint about D&D Next’s spell casting… My actual biggest complaint is the complexity of how its presented. You can know, say… 1 spell, plus an extra amount from your stat bonus, plus some that you know because of your deity etc. Of those, say 4 spells, you can prepare 1 + your level plus you might always have some prepared because of your class/deity/tradition, then you might only be able to cast say 2 of them per day, but some spells might be cantrips to your because of your deity/tradition. Then theres the fact that some spells are swift actions, and some have ritual versions… It’s just all too complex.

Finally… theres the stupid method of rolling to hit. Some spells have attacks, some auto hit, some force the DM to roll against a static DC based on the spellcasters stats. Note that… THE DM ROLLS. We’ve ascertained that players like to roll dice. And the DM already has enough fucking stuff on his plate telling the story, tracking hp, ac, initiative, positions, describing stuff… So why in god’s name, have WotC decided to lump yet another thing on the DM and make him roll to see if the spell hits? In some ways I actual prefer the method WotC used in the earliest playtest where the spellcaster rolled to set a DC, and then the dm rolled to beat it. At least that was dynamic…

9. Development Time

The first public showing, to a select bunch of fans – Alphastream, NewbieDM, SarahDarkmagic etc was in December 2011. Thats 18 months ago. I’ve developed and released 10 pieces of software in the same time frame. Given that WotC will have been working on it internally for a year or so before hand, we are looking at 2 and a half years in which they still can’t figure out how the fighter or rogue should work, 2 and a half years in which to still not figure out how skills should work, 2 and a half years for monster maths still not to be calculated right. I just can’t shake the feeling that it’s taking too long, without enough progress been made on core aspects of the system.

10. Disappoint Undead

18 months of public testing, and still we’ve yet to see a decent version of Turn Undead. Some packets didn’t even give the cleric it by default… In our group its known by the more appropriate name of disappoint undead thanks to its inability to actually do anything useful. I can understand that its a hard one to balance – make it too powerful and the cleric becomes the go to class in an undead rich campaign, and it can totally ruin a dm’s planned encounter… But given every party will have to have a cleric because of the divine healing only aspect of D&D Next, I think they could balance this spell/power/ability better, and make it more useful.

11. The Wizard

The wizard is in my opinion the worst class in the current D&D Next playtest. Whereas other classes get new features per level, beyond new spells, and a few more uses of arcane recovery, the Wizard gets well and truly shafted as it goes up in levels. Couple this with the complexity of the spellcasting rules, and the Traditions, which compared to deities/oaths/moon phases/favoured enemies etc are woefully under described and under featured and put simply, boring, and you have a class that borders on being a total snore fest.

12. The Monk

Oh look, yet again the D&D monk is a martial arts master, whirling around the battlefield, almost impossible to hit despite only wearing robes, dealing stupid amounts of damage with their bare fists.

I come from Britain, home of the abbeys and monasteries, hell, theres 3 ancient abbey ruins within 30 minutes of my home. Monks to me are academic priests, with a vow or silence, and the ability to make kick ass beer and mead… Put that aside for a moment, and the martial arts master just doesn’t sit right with me in a medieval world of warriors, wizards, kingdoms and dragons. I don’t mind the Monk being an optional class introduced in a later book, but I hate the fact its a core class.

13. The Rogue

For 18 months the rogue has suffered an identity crisis. At times its being the skill monkey, at other times its basically just been the fighter with less armour and more damage. I wish they would just figure out what it is they want the rogue to do and make it do it, though I personally don’t know what I want the class to be. I know I hated the fact that in 4e, in order to best use sneak attack, you had to flank and thus the rogue became a frontline fighter, but maybe that kind of rogue needs to be an option?

14. The Fighter

I’ll be honest, when I had the chance to privately playtest the various options for the fighter, it drove me crazy. In one session, we had 3 different versions of it playing side by side, and none of them stood out as being the best. I actually had to step aside from playtesting for a while simply because I was fed up of seeing yet another new fighter concept.

The fighter as it stands is a good class, it is equal in power to its rivals – the monk, the barbarian and the paladin. Its only real strength comes in that its ability, the expertise dice, its gets 2 per encounter, rather than the usually 2 per day benefits of its rivals.

My issue with it though, is that it doesn’t scream out ‘fighter’, it doesn’t make me think of a peasant man at arms drafted into the militia, or of a mounted knight, or of a heroic dragon slayer. It’s just a little ‘meh’. It lacks a flavoursome choice like deity/oath (though past playtests have had some) and mechanically I feel like it should be THE BEST at fighting. Even if thats only an extra +1 attack bonus to the bounded accuracy and an extra +2 damage, I just always want it to be the best, and stand out as being the most well trained with weapons and armour.

15. Too Many Things

Your race gives you stuff – stats, abilities, languages  proficiencies. Your sub race (if you have one) gives you stuff, stats, abilities. Your Class gives you stuff, stats, hit dice, hp, proficiencies, abilities, attack bonuses, class skills, equipment. Your sub class (deity/.oath/tradition)  gives you stuff. Your background gives you stuff – skills, equipment and an ability. Your speciality gives you abilities. Even your equipment can give you stuff you have to keep track off. I actually reckon, that laid out like a 4e character sheet, you’d have more ‘powers’ on the cards. For a game thats meant to be streamlined and stripped down, its just too complex at level one.

16. Character Generation Sucks

I have to open pretty much every document when I build characters, char gen guide, how to play guid (because the stat bonuses aren’t listed in the char gen guide!), and I need to pick a race, class, spells, background, speciality, equipment… At least 4e had the character builder app eventually…

Continue reading »]]> I attended the 4th UK Tweetup event on Saturday 16th March and was lucky enough to win this book in the raffle. Here is my review.

Details

• 107 pages
• Colour cover art, non-colour illustrations inside the book.
• Price: £9.29 / $15.99
• Link: US Amazon, UK Amazon

This book aims to introduce consequences for PCs and monster rolling a natural 1 or a natural 20 while engaged in combat in 4E. PCs already get the bonus damage if they have a magical weapon when rolling a natural 20 and a natural 1 is an automatic miss, but this book aims to breathe some fresh variation into the consequences.

The book is split into 6 main sections and 2 one page sections. The six sections are:

• Magical Blunders – For when a magic using PC rolls a critical fumble (16 pages)
• Magic Triumphant – for when a magic using PC rolls a critical hit (10 pages)
• Melee and Ranged Fumbles – for when non-magic using PCs roll a critical fumble< (18 pages)/li>
• Melee Triumphant – for when non-magic using PCs roll a critical hit (14 pages)
• Monster Fumbles – for when monsters roll a critical fumble (12 pages)
• Monster Criticals – for when monsters roll critical hits (10 pages)

When someone rolls a critical hit or miss you consult the relevant table and roll a d20 to determine what fate has befallen them. Some entries have certain requirements (such as Ravening Scavengers which has the requirement that the fight must be taking place where scavengers could be nearby) or require a roll on another table (such as the Ball of Nerves, where you have to roll to see what biological effect your nervousness has resulted in). Others are resolved instantly.

Some of the entries are designed to be used separately out of the context of the critical/fumbles. Mainly these are magic items (helpfully reproduced in the appendix in a a photocopy-then-cut-out-friendly manner. In addition to the magic items, there are new monsters and hazards.

The author suggests different uses for the book, one of which is to only use the tables the first time a natural 1 or 20 is rolled in combat (so as not to slow down the game too much). This would probably be my preferred method as well. However there are quick fumble tables (see below) that could be used constantly.

It is clear that a lot of thought has been put into the content of this book, with some wonderfully flavourful entries (what DM could resist a player mis-casting a spell that opened up a “planar wound”?). Splitting up the tables into the above categories makes sense to me. My one major gripe would be that there should be an easily accessible table (inside front page, inside back page or the middle pages), that has the six categories listed with the d20 result and exactly what page each entry was, so you only need to be looking at one table while you are actually playing and go straight to the correct page for what you rolled.

In addition to the more in-depth tables, there are two “quick fumbles” tables. These contain effects that are much simpler (such as you are dazed until the beginning of your next turn) and would not add much extra time to combat. These tables take up two facing pages and so could easily be used during combat by just having the book open at that page. While the quick fumbles tables take up far less time to resolve, they sacrifice the very interesting flavour that the more involved tables have. It is nice that the book covers both bases – interesting & involved and quick & dirty.

While I am not a fan of the art on the cover, I love the illustrations peppered throughout the book, despite not being in colour. The art breaks up the tables nicely and helps get across the flavour of some of the entries.

Conclusion
This book would certainly add variety and a freshness to a 4E campaign if combat was feeling stale. If you only use the tables the first time an event occurs in combat (or use the quick fumbles tables), then it shouldn’t add too much time to your combats, and if the added time is fun then that should be a good thing, right? I would recommend this book to those that have some spare money and want something a bit different from the usual 4E fare. However, I would not go as far as to say this is a must-buy.

Continue reading »]]> The last product that I contributed to for the 4e Midgard Kickstarter is available to buy on RPGNow for only $2.99 / £1.95. It already has a 5 star review and even though I may be biased I think 12 interesting fun monsters for such a small amount of cash is definitely value for money.

Some of the 12 monsters in the product are:
Bagiennik – This unpredictable monster is as likely to help people as attack them. The oil it secretes is prized though.
Doppelrat – A rat that clones multiple copies of itself.
Dragonleaf Tree – A tree that has some of the capabilities of a dragon, how cool is that!
Oculo Swarm – This hideous “thing” steals the eyes of its victims

I got involved in this project as Richard Green and Brian LiBerge needed to convert 12 existing Midgard monsters to 4E pretty quickly. Richard knew I was unemployed and would be happy to help out and so he asked me if I would take 4 monsters and him and Brian would also take 4 each. Brian graciously let me choose the 4 monsters I wanted to do from their list before they divided the rest up between the two of them. I chose the Doppelrat, Salt Golem, Witchlight and the Bagiennik. Once again I bounced ideas off of John Pope (ObsidianCrane) and Adam Page and used my regular group to playtest the monsters. I was quite concerned about the Doppelrat, as I hadn’t used any similar monster in 4E up until that point and the fact it kept producing copies of itself meant I was worried that the adventurers would have no chance of overcoming it or indeed escaping from it. The playtest fight went extremely well. The fight was like a roller coaster. One second the Doppelrat seemed to have overwhelmed the PCs, the next the PCs clearly had the upper hand. That’s exactly how I hoped it would play out.

It is a cheap product but should give you some more fun toys to torment your players with. I hope everyone enjoys it!

Continue reading »]]> This months Dragon magazine from WotC say the return of Krynn’s draconians, portrayed for D&D 4e through the use of racial variants for the Dragonborn race. Presented in the article were the Bozak (magic using) and Kapak (stealthy, acidic) draconians. Other the next few days, it’s my intention to write up the missing racial types.

Racial Variant: Baaz Draconian

Considered to be weak minded and with no discernible personality, Baaz draconians are the most numerous, serving in great multitudes as the foot soldiers of the Dark Queen Takhasis. Their natural ferocity and undisciplined and often sadistic behaviour is exploited by the other draconians, who whip them into a frenzy before battle. In death, the baaz draconian turns to stone, resulting in battlefield littered in the statues of the draconian armies, the weapons that slayed them still embedded in their bodies, though these statues soon crumbled.

Baaz draconians are generally indistinguishable from normal dragonborn, with the same humanoid form, clawed hands and blunt draconic snout with small sharp teeth. Their dragonlike wings are small, thin and leathery, barely capable of supporting their weight when gliding, yet alone allowing them to fly. Their scaled skin is a bright brassy colour when born, but fades to a dark green as they age and the scales harden.

Baaz player characters are usually pure martial warriors such as slayers or knights, or even barbarians, where their natural strength makes them formidable fighters.

When creating a baaz draconian character, you can pick from the following benefits.

Warrior Blood: Driven to a frenzy before battle, your strikes fell your foes with ease
Benefit: You gain a +1 racial bonus to the damage rolls of your martial weapon attack powers. This bonus increases to +2 at 11th level and +3 at 21st level. This benefit replaces Dragonborn Fury.

Draconic Form: Your sclaes provide you with a natural armour, and while your wings are neither large enough nor strong enough to sustain flight for long, they can help you glide rather than fall.
Benefit: You gain a +2 racial bonus to AC, and you take no damage from falling and land standing up. This benefit replaces Draconic Heritage.

Frenzied Combat: In the heat of combat you lash out with your claws and teeth, the scent of blood filling your nostrils and making your attacks more fierce.
Benefit: You gain the Violent Outlash power. This benefit replaces Dragon Breath.

Violent Outlash * Baaz Racial Power
With your foe smarting them your attack, you lash out, hitting him with your claws, or biting at their face.
Encounter * Martial
Free Action * Personal
Trigger: You hit and damage an adjacent creature with a weapon attack
Target: The triggering creature.
Attack: Strength vs AC
Hit: 1d6 + Strength modifier damage
Level 11: 2d6 + Strength modifier damage.
Level 21: 3d6 + Strength modifier damage.
Special: You regain the use of this power when you are bloodied.

Death Throes: The draconic blood that flows through your veins solidifies as soon as the your heart stops beating, petrifying your body from the inside out, turning you into a statue.
Benefit: You gain the Solid Death power. All baaz draconians gain this benefit.

Solid Death * Baaz Racial Power
As the attack ends your life, your scales harden to a stone like material.
Daily
Free Action * Personal
Trigger: You die
Effect: You turn into a statue. If the creature that struck the deathblow was using a weapon, it must make a Hard DC Dexterity check or have its weapon fused inside your body. You crumble to dust after 2d10 minutes.

Draconian Feats
The feats in this section enhance the capabilities of draconian characters.
Baaz Footsoldier
Seizing the opportunity to finish your foe, your blows stagger them, allowing you to strike harder next time.
Prerequisite: Baaz draconian, Warrior Blood racial feature
Benefit: If you hit and damage a target with a martial weapon attack power, you gain combat advantage on your next attack against the target.

Gallop Into Battle
The lust to engage your foes means you run into combat.
Prerequisite: Baaz draconian
Benefit: You gain a +2 feat bonus to speed while charging, and gain a +2 bonus to your speed when running. In addition, you do not suffer the -5 penalty or grant combat advantage for running.

Continue reading »]]> Last year in the flurry of Kickstarters I involved myself in was the one for this game; Tenra Bansho Zero (TBZ) and its now available for general purchase in PDF format (the print books are on a boat from China currently) so I thought now would be a good time to share my thoughts and experiences with the game now that we have managed to play a few sessions (advantage of being a backer)

So what is TBZ?

In simple terms its a narrative and role play focussed Japanese RPG designed to allow you to encapsulate most of the tropes that were common in manga and anime at the time it was produced, so if you like anime and manga that’s a good reason to start looking at it.

However the underlying system is very powerful and the mechanics are intended to be repurposed or re-skinned to suit the needs of your campaign. It can be used to tell everything from simple no magic stories with basic medieval weapons through to hard sic-fi mecha and cyborg stories, or all of those at once (as its default is)! How things look and work are all a matter of description and role play in the game because the way the rules are set up makes this the most important part of the game anyway.

Karma System

The heart of the system is the Karma System which has 4 “moving parts” that are all interconnected, and getting to grips with this part of the system was/is the hardest part for us “old school” gamers used to systems like DnD, Storyteller and L5R. If you are used to systems that have players give “bennies’ or other rewards for RP then your transition to TBZ will be easier.

The four parts of the Karma System are, Karma, Kiai, Aiki and Fates. During a story (adventure) your character gains Aiki and Kiai which are used to get temporary boosts, buy successes and improve your character permanently. Spending Aiki is good and you earn it when you are rewarded for playing your character well and doing cool stuff in the game by other players – its essentially a mechanic tied to rewarding your for making the game fun for everyone. At the end of a session (or perhaps during it) you can turn Aiki into Kiai (its more than a 1 to 1 trade). Aiki and Kiai are used for the same things mostly but Kiai expenditures change your Karma while Aiki do not, so any permanent change to your character is effected through Kiai. This then leads to Karma, if your karma is 108 or higher at the end of an interlude (think extended rest in 4E DnD terms but its not quite the same) your character turns into an NPC monster bent on destroying everything they used to work for (usually starting with the other PCs), if its 0 you also turn into an NPC but its less detrimental to the rest of the party. Which brings us to Fates, fates are the things that drive your character through the story, they can be a goal or even an emotional state, and they help you and others understand how to RP your character. As part of an interlude you can decide that a fate was achieved, that it has become part of your character and no longer drives them, doing this reduces your Karma total and can stop your character from going over the edge into becoming a monster.

The net effect of these four things is that you can make characters that are very powerful at the start of a story, but they risk turning into monsters or not improving much during the story, or you can make a character that is weaker at the start of the story who has a lot of flexibility to do awesome things during the game. The degree of how awesome your character can be is then driven by your RP and participation in the game. Sit back and do nothing and things are going to be dull, get in there and do cool things that make the game fun for everyone and not only is the game more fun but your character gets more powerful, but that power is ultimately balanced by the risk of the PC turning into a monster!

This ultimately sets up a very balanced game, where the game is not balanced by the numbers on the board at any given instant but by the total interaction of the system. This systemic balance then allows great flexibility in individual character power levels and use of the game mechanics to do a wide range of things.

Getting Hurt Is Great!!

Aside from the Karma System the other big thing that makes TBZ an interesting game system that is very different from most other systems is that once the weapons are out and the fighting starts it isn’t bad to get hurt, in fact the more you get hurt the more powerful your character becomes! What makes this even better is that you decide how much you get hurt!. The game has hit points (vitality) and wounds. You can take vitality damage and when you run out of vitality you are unconsious if you take no wounds eventually you will get up dust yourself off and walk away none the worse for wear, which lets you get very heroic/action movie with your injuries if you want. The advantage of vitality damage is no permanent effects, the disadvantage is you don’t get any bonuses.

If you want to get pumped up you need to take a wound, the more dangerous the wound the more of a boost you get, but the harder it is to heal. In fact the highest level of wound you can take is “Dead”, yes you can choose to take a wound that might result in your character being dead at the end of the encounter! That makes the fight a critical moment for the character and symbolises your willingness to die to win this particular fight, rather than necessarily if you took a deadly wound. However because you are prepared to die it is possible for you to win the encounter and still end up dead at the end.

Overall this makes combat all about choices, how do you attack, do you cheer on your friends (there are rules for this), how badly are you hurt? This makes fights a lot more interesting than counting down hit points and just swinging your sword.

Getting Emotional

The final aspect of the rules that are interesting is the Emotion Matrix, whenever your character meets a new (important to the story) person you roll on the Emotion Matrix, a table of possible results that range from “True Love” to “Mortal Enemies” and all sorts of things in between. These are not binding states, they are supposed to give you a starting point for RP. Perhaps you meet the Ninja PC for the first time and you become discomforted, this person gives you a bad feeling, perhaps they are here to kill you? What will you do? How will you roleplay in response to this? Its not a binding thing, you can spend Aiki and Kiai to move the result, or perhaps another player gives you some of their Aiki to get a result, or maybe the GM wants a result and offers you some Aiki to make it more interesting. That’s the key moving it to things that make sense and promote the RP at the same time is far more interesting than just assuming the PCs get along.

For example in our party my ninja, working undercover as a street thug has the following results now:

Yuki aka Light of Heaven: Chains of Fate (for now he must guard her, but their destinies are intertwined)
Matsuba-kai: They Hate You! (the man who sent him on this mission hates him!)
Fellow PCs:
Shiro-Mizu: Admiration – for protecting Yuki (despite his apparent interest)
Hiroshi - Dark-Dreams – A Warning
Tadakuan – Unsettled Mind – what it the truth of the priest?
Tenkawa – Worthy Rival – there is something about him, he may be a worthy rival in attaining my goals.

So my untrusting Ninja on a mission given to him by a man who hates him and wants him dead (blaming my PC for the death of his son) is teamed up with a guy he likes because he protected my PC’s charge, a mysterious priest who could pose a great threat but is travelling with the guy he trusts, a man who he sees as a possible rival (perhaps the man intended to finish my PCs mission once Matsuba-kai has forced him to fail?) and the cyborg monk who leaves him unsettled with dark visions of destruction. Its a bit more interesting than the usual basic “lets all get along and work together” start to a game most parties have!

As a result of all of this in the last game when our air ship was attacked by ninjas (:)) my PC left Tenkawa to face a ninja alone, Tenkawa was either more than capable of killing the enemy or he was not truly a worthy rival. How often does that sort of stuff happen in your DnD game?

Well Worth A Look

Graphically the game is very nice with great consistent work that holds up the anime/manga feel that the authors were aiming for making it visually consistent. Fonts are mostly fairly easy to read and the game is cleanly laid out. The core mechanics are explained on about 3 critical pages, one for basic game play, one for the karma system and one for combat. These pages are actually presented as a comic. If you just printed the comics that explain the rules you could hand them to new players and have them up and running quite quickly.

The dice rolling mechanics of the game are very straightforward making it simple to learn that element of the game allowing you to build system mastery quite quickly. However the real power of the games mechanics come from how they encourage you to RP and make the game interesting, even if some members of the party actually want to kill each other.

Overall it is one of the more interesting systems I have encountered in the last few years and has the flexibility to be the game I and the players want it to be,  which is the ideal outcome from an RPG.

You can read more here: http://www.tenra-rpg.com

You can buy it at:

Drive Thru RPG here: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/111713/Tenra-Bansho-Zero%3A-Heaven-and-Earth-Edition
Indie Press Revolution here: http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/product.php?productid=18728&cat=0&featured=Y
Or direct from the publisher’s webstore here: http://kotodama.bigcartel.com/product/tenra-bansho-zero-pdf-version

Continue reading »]]> Bantha
This highly adaptable species is one of the most commonly found herd creatures, living wild on many worlds, and domesticated for agricultural and pastoral use on many of the major inhabited worlds. Bantha have the ability to survive in harsh, unforgiving environments  they live on minuscule amounts of food and water given their size, and they naturally store the excess in deposits around their bodies. Its not uncommon for a herd of bantha to strip an area of vegetation, roam the wilds for weeks and return to feast on the fresh seedlings in the original area..
The bantha is a large quadra-ped, several meters tall and is covered with thick shaggy fur, and armed with large curved horns that are as hard as steel. Capable of carrying several times their own impressive body weight, they are used by tusken raiders as mounts and beasts of burden.

Bantha (Henchmen)
Brawn 6, Cunning 1
Presence 2, Agility 3
Intellect 1, Willpower 1
Skills: Brawl 2, Resilience 3, Survival 3
Talents: None
Soak/Defence: 8 / 0
Thresholds: Wound: 20
Silhouette: 2
Abilities: Beast of Burden (encumbrance threshold of 20), Trample (Brawl 4 if used maneuver to engage the target)
Equipment: Horns (Skill: Brawl, Range: Engaged, Damage: +4, Critical: 4, Special: Knockdown)

Womp Rat
This large rodent is a native of Tatooine, commonly found in the shadowy canyons of the planets desert wastelands. Roughly the same size as an MSE series droid, individuals of the species have been observed that have grown to a similar size as an astromech droid, thankfully, such mutations are rare. Opportunistic scavengers, womp rats hunt as a pack, living off carrion, refuse, and picking off weak individuals of species like bantha when the can, using their numbers to overwhelm their prey.

Womp Rat (Minion)
Brawn 3, Cunning 3
Presence 1, Agility 4
Intellect 1, Willpower 1
Skills: Brawl 2, Resilience 1, Stealth 3, Survival 2
Talents: None
Soak/Defence: 2 / 0
Thresholds: Wound: 6
Abilities: None
Equipment: Bite (Skill: Brawl, Range: Engaged, Damage: +2, Critical: 4, Special: Pierce 2)

Dewback
These cold bloodied reptiles wander the dune seas of Tatooine in small packs, huddling together for warmth during the nights, and basking in the double sunlight in the early mornings. The species gets its name from the moisture that collects on their scaly backs during the night, and the dewbacks begin their day by ritually licking the accumulated water droplets from their packmates back during the morning. Easily domesticated, dewbacks are more reliable than landspeeders when exploring the deserts of Tatooine.

Dewback (Henchmen)
Brawn 2, Cunning 2
Presence 2, Agility 3
Intellect 2, Willpower 2
Skills: Brawl 2, Perception 2, Resilience 3, Survival 4
Talents: None
Soak/Defence: 4 / 0
Thresholds: Wound: 8
Abilities: Beast of Burden (encumbrance threshold of 12)
Equipment: Bite (Skill: Brawl, Range: Engaged, Damage: +4, Critical: 4, Special: Pierce 2)

Continue reading »]]> Ardun Du’gren – Dim-U Preacher

It’s easy to ignore the wld arm waving gesticulations, and almost incomprehensible shouting of Ardun, a human follower of the Dim-U faith. These fanatics believe in the sanctity of the bantha, and worship a mother goddess creature, the mighty bantha, the horned one. By day, Ardun wanders the Mos Shuuta streets, his white robes and long flowing hair a common sight outside the towns cantina and Teemo’s palace, where he rants and raves at the morality of the drinkers and gamblers, trying to explain to them that the only true way to salvation for their sins of excess is to renounce all bantha based goods – the meat they eat, and the furs they wear – and praise the one true god, the stalwart bantha. By night, it as if Ardun is a different person. Calm and collective, he tends to a small hydroponics farm in the back of his home.

Dim-U Preacher (Henchmen)
Brawn 1, Cunning 3
Presence 3, Agility 2
Intellect 2, Willpower 2
Race: Human
Skills: Charm 2, Cool 2, Deceit 3, Knowledge (lore) 2, Leadership 3,
Talents: None
Soak/Defence: 1 / 0
Thresholds: Wound: 11
Abilities: None
Equipment: Robes, religious texts, datapad

Jakob Ereatis – Clumsy Idiot

It seems rude to instantly dismiss Jakob as the towns idiot, but in the 6 months he has lived on the mesa, after inadvertently falling into the landing gear of an imperial shuttle, he has managed to get hired and fired from every business in Mos Shuuta. At first it was believed that Jakob’s clumsiness was an act, used to distract attention and to enable him to spy. Yet after weeks of being followed by the Hutt’s guards, it was determined that he really was that useless. Jakob takes whatever jobs he can find, to earn the scant few credits he needs to survive, but inevitably messes up. If he’s delivering a message, he’ll snag his pouch on some sharp edges of metallic junk, tearing the letter to shreds. If he’s serving food, he’ll spill the contents as he bends down, while simultaneously knocking the diner behind him face first into their plate.

Odd Job Man (Henchmen)
Brawn 1, Cunning 2
Presence 2, Agility 3
Intellect 2, Willpower 2
Race: Human
Skills: Cool 1, Mechanics 1, Ranged (light) 1, Stealth 1, Streetwise 3
Talents: None
Soak/Defence: 1 / 0
Thresholds: Wound: 11
Abilities: None
Equipment: Secure carry satchel, datapad, commlink, holdout blaster

Seedoneo – Fat Rodian

Mos Shuuta is not a wealthy town, it scrapes by with a few exports of good quality ore, and the typical Tatooine trade in illegal items. It’s residents are, for the most part, barely able to survive day to day, getting just enough food and water to survive the harsh desert climate. This is why Seedoneo is subject a rare sight in Mos Shuuta… He’s fat… Not just large, but really fat, so much so, that he hasn’t been able to use his legs for some years now, and instead sits inside a floating chair, a modified life support pod fitted with repulsor’s. Seedoneo floats serenely through the streets, accompanied by bodyguards on his journeys between his home and office, the power station, the electrogate, and the docking stations. Seedoneo is a sand trader, buying the finest sands gathered in the nearby deserts, and then exports them off planet for use in the massive starship windows, where the mineral rich silica produces a strong glass capable of withstanding the rigours of hyperspace.

Galactic Trader (Henchmen)
Brawn 1, Cunning 3
Presence 3, Agility 1
Intellect 3, Willpower 2
Race: Rodian
Skills: Cool 2, Deceit 2, Negotiate 3, Knowledge (all) 2, Ranged (light) 2
Talents: None
Soak/Defence: 1 / 0
Thresholds: Wound:  11
Abilities: None
Equipment: Datapad, commlink, floating chair, 500 credits, Holdout Blaster

ChadesinFrego – Troig Forensic Investigator

Troig are an uncommon sight in the galaxy at the best of times, so to find one of the two headed four armed creatures in a backwater community such as Mos Shuuta is strange. ChadesinFrego is an imperial agent, but makes no secret of it, having been sent to Tatooine to investigate the deaths of a whole garrison of stormtroopers. ChadesinFrego results were inconclusive and rather than bring him back to the galactic core world’s, the left him to rot on Tatooine. Or so he says… ChadesinFrego two heads are especially co-operative, one being a medical expert, the other being a ballistics expert. Enjoying the heat, ChadesinFrego decided to stay after his mission was complete, and now treats injuries in private at a high cost, and trains the Hutt’s guards in blaster usage.

Imperial Investigator (Henchmen)
Brawn 1, Cunning 2
Presence 3, Agility 1
Intellect 4, Willpower 2
Race: Troig
Skills: Cool 3, Deceit 3, Knowledge (All) 2, Medicine 3, Mechanics 1, Ranged (light) 2, Ranged (heavy) 2
Talents: None
Soak/Defence: 1 / 0
Thresholds: Wound: 11
Abilities: None
Equipment: Datapad, commlink, medpac, blaster pistol

Klat Ser – Ever Present Drinker

You’ll find someone like Klat Ser in ever bar in ever world, and even in the deepest space stations, there will be a solitary individual mourning his life. They are the ever present drinkers, the backbones of the best drinking establishments, the people who never leave… Klat Ser is a Nikto, but it’s not immediately obvious, his facial spines have been snapped off, and ugly scars mar his reptilian scales. Given most of his race serve as slave soldiers to the Hutt crime syndicates, it can easily be presumed that Klat suffered these hideous wounds in service to Teemo, and now spends his days in a drunken stupor in the Mos Shuuta cantina. What is less obvious is the commlink embedded into one of the scars on his face, giving him a constant and pretty much undetectable communications link the Teemo’s palace. Klat is a spy, albeit a drunken one, observing the comings and goings in the cantina and reporting back to his master.

Undercover Agent (Henchmen)
Brawn 3, Cunning 2
Presence 2, Agility 3
Intellect 2, Willpower 4
Race: Nikto
Skills: Cool 2, Deceit 4, Perception 3, Melee 2, Resilience 1, Stealth 1, Streetwise 2, Ranged
light) 2
Talents: None
Soak/Defence: 3 / 0
Thresholds: Wound: 15
Abilities: None
Equipment: Commlink, 100 credits, holdout blaster, combat knife

Saman Fress – Maternal Saviour

The slums of Mos Shuuta, linked to the mesa by rope bridges and narrow beams of decaying metal are a hideous place, families live in tiny tents or metal sheds, often 8 or 9 people per dwelling. Unfortunately, the kind of manual work the adults in these families do is extremely hazardous, and it doesn’t seem like a week goes by without a death of some resident or loved one. Saman Fress is the slums saviour, a wealthy humanitarian who has used her money to build a small permanent building within the slums, from which so feeds, clothes and teaches the orphaned children. The Hutt has sent his guards to shut her down many times, he fears that an educated population might rebel against his control over the the mesa, but so far all attempts to destroy her building or kill her have failed.

Humanitarian (Henchmen)
Brawn 1, Cunning 4
Presence 4, Agility 1
Intellect 2, Willpower 4
Race: Human
Skills: Charm 3, Cool 2, Perception 2, Streetwise 3, Vigiliance 2
Talents: None
Soak/Defence: 1 / 0
Thresholds: Wound: 11
Abilities: None
Equipment: Medpac, clothing bundle, food and water supplies, 50 credits

Hurk – Former Gladiator

Old Man Hurk as he is known on Mos Shuuta was a former and highly successful gladiator in Teemo’s employ, until a staged fight against 10 Geonosians went wrong, and Hurk lost his arm. Rather than turn to drink and join the inevitable spiral towards death, Hurk used what little money he had to get a prosthetic arm fitted, and now lives amongst the community that he once entertained. His small dwelling is located along one of the main thoroughfares near the Mos Shuuta market place, and Hurk sits outside in the shade, his bench always open for visitors to sit next to him and chat. Hurk observes the kids running around, watching them play fight, and tries to analyse which will grow up to be true warriors and offers his advise to make their fights more realistic.

Arena Fighter (Henchmen)
Brawn 4, Cunning 2
Presence 3, Agility 3
Intellect 2, Willpower 2
Race: Human
Skills: Coerce 3, Cool 3, Brawl 3, Melee 3, Perception 1, Resilience 3, Survival 2
Talents: None
Soak/Defence: 4 / 0
Thresholds: Wound: 14
Abilities: None
Equipment: Prosthetic arm, stimpack, combat knife,

Tek Mar – Observant Bounty Hunter

How a Gran came to be on Tatooine is unclear, and you won’t get an answer from Tek Mar for his tongue has been cut out. Considering himself an outcast from even the notably fringe bounty hunter community, Tek Mar avoids contact with people, preferring sit on the roof of the water tower, using its elevated position to observe the world. He is a remarkably philosophical person, spending his days writing notes, poetry and drawing sketches of the changing landscape and people. Occasionally, when his water keg runs out, or when his wrist communicator beeps with a new message, he descends from the tower and strides purposefully towards docking bay Aurek, returning to his post several days later.

Lone Wolf (Henchmen)
Brawn 2, Cunning 2
Presence 2, Agility 2
Intellect 3, Willpower 3
Race: Gran
Skills: Coerce 2, Cool 4, Deceit 1, Melee 1, Perception 4, Ranged (light) 4, Stealth 2
Talents: Quick Draw, Swift Aim
Soak/Defence: 4 / 0
Thresholds: Wound: 13
Abilities: None
Equipment: Padded Armour, Heavy Blaster Pistol, Combat Knife

C3-GG-43 – Stationary Droid

Automated systems in the Mos Shuuta power station activate each day at 6 am, and cause a metallic screen to rise and the power stations customer charging point open for business. Behind the screen is what at first glance a protocol droid, versed in the many galactic languages and fitted with both arms and several prehensile power cords with varying adaptors, including those for blaster pistols, to those for recharging droids. Beneath the counter though, C3-GG-43′s appearance is shocking. Hardwired into the power stations generators and computer network, his legs are missing, the cables and servo-actuators dangling lose over what remains of a Gonk droid, it’s body forming the basis of C3-GG-43′s ability to control the flow of power through his own appendages and also the flow of power to the various buildings on the mesa.

Immobile Droid (Henchmen)
Brawn 2, Cunning 3
Presence 3, Agility 1
Intellect 5, Willpower 3
Race: Droid (Class 3 and 5)
Skills: Knowledge (all) 4, Streetwise 4
Talents: None
Soak/Defence: 1 / 0
Thresholds: Wound: 12
Abilities: Droid do not need to eat, drink or sleep
Equipment: Various power cables, commlink

Continue reading »]]> The lands around the Mos Shuuta mesa may, at first glance, just look like the rest of Tatooine… arid, featureless desert, but like the rest of the planet, looks can be very deceiving.

The Mos Shuuta mesa is a rocky outcropping, roughly 500m by 1000 metres in size, in a roughly kidney shaped formation, formed millennia ago when ancient glaciers scoured the softer rocks away from the ore bearing mesa stone. As the centuries have passed, earthquakes, and wind erosion have helped to level the mesa’s surface, and also make its cliff sides, that jut over 100 metres above the valley floor, into sheer, almost unscalable cliffs of jagged, knife edged rock, Anyone foolish enough to attempt to climb the vertical rock faces is exposed to the dangers of the Tatooine winds, where sudden gusts can slam you hard against the stone, and press you there, pushing the air from your lungs. Or the wind might whip up from beneath you, threatening to pull you away from the scant few hand holds, bringing sand with it to blind you.

In several places, weaker stones within the mesa’s mass have crumbled away, leaving isolated pillars, that are now linked by fragile rock archways, or by rickety and unreliable man-made bridges. At constant risk of further collapse, and thus with an ever present threat of being stranded, only the poorest of Mos Shuuta’s residents life in these slums.

Only one safe path leads up onto the mesa, a steep slope that winds its way around the south west corner of the bluff, leading up from the valley floor to the large electrogate and adobe walls that form the mesa’s secure entry point. Probably intentionally, Teemo the Hutt’s palace looms above the path as it hugs the cliff face, giving his guards the first view of all incoming and outgoing landspeeders. The path is just wide enough for the heavier models of landspeeders used by the remote moisture farms to transport their precious cargo.

Over the years, there have been many travellers left stranded outside the electrogate, and a few smaller settlements have grown around the base of the mesa, generally close to the ramp, where the can beg for a few credits from other travellers. Amid the rubble of adobe walls, metallic roofs scavenged from broken down vehicles, and canvas tents made from scraps of sailbarge fabric, there is a thriving community of vagrants and jawa traders. Unrestricted by the Hutt’s control of the items for sale, in this downtrodden blackmarket you’ll find less legal and more dangerous goods, but be careful, because flashing too many credits around will make you a target for the desperate individuals that call the tent city home.

Further afield from the mesa, towards the north, towards Mos Espa and Mos Eisley, is a vague path, it’s boundary obvious due to the clear ground, blown free of small rocks by landspeeder repulsor lifts. Alongside this path are a group of rocky upthrusts, veins of ore embedded into ancient rock, that haven’t weathered the centuries as well as the mesa. Amid these small rock formations, the shadows lengthen, and there is no telling what creatures hide amongst the jagged stone, waiting, lurking, for travellers to rest here in the shade at the height of the twin suns over head.

Looking out from the mesa to the west, you can see the heat shimmer off the Silt Sea, a vast bowl shaped depression in Tatooines surface, caused thousands of years ago by a meteor impact. As the centuries have passed, the resulting crater has filled in with wind wept sand. Up close, it looks much like the rest of the valley, flat and featureless, dunes giving way to a faint line of rocks, and then sand for as far as the eye can see. But step onto the sand, and you’ll soon learn of its danger. The finer, recent accumulations of sand swallow you quickly, dropping you waist deep, but then your feet touch the semi solid mass of silt, a mixture of ancient ground up rock and seeping moisture from the cool desert nights. As your body gets dragged into the thick mud, and you fight to escape, your actions are in fact your death sentence, the silt and sand mixing and setting as solid as blaststeel.

Head the other way, away from the mesa to the east, and you find a group of moisture farms, a conglomerate of families who call themselves the Free People of the Black Valley. Its unclear if they are truly a group unbeholden to any third parties for their equipment and food, but what is clear is that used to be more of them. Several empty farmsteads dot the landscape, their vaporators left running, controlled remotely, and piping the precious condensation to the occupied farms. Of the 5 families left, 3 life together in one set of underground caves, their landspeeders set in a defensive perimeter, and armed with heavy repeater blaster rifles, enough to discourage all but the most dedicated Tusken Raider attack.

South of Mos Shuuta are the plains of Magellenan, named after an infamous Mos Shuutan bantha herder and hunter. Even decades after his passing, crushed to death during a stampede, the gentle giants of the Tatooine sands – bantha, eopies, dewbacks and even ronto – roam the wide sandy plains, grazing on the native flora. The plains are a popular place to hunt animals for food, or to gather the otherwise sparse desert plant life such as cookies leaves, but doing so puts you at risk of encountering the sand people who now roam this area tending the creatures.