But as it is Wednesday, I have another review posted on EN World News, offering a new role-playing accessory for use in Dungeons & Dragons, or any other Fantasy RPG.  Geek Corps Productions has a set of Critical Hit & Fumble Cards out, to use to help gamers add new levels of brutality and violence to their heroic combats.

For all the details, please click the link below and head over to EN World to read the complete review:

Review of Critical Hit & Fumble Card Deck by Geek Corps Productions

Sadly, I’m not sure how many gaming groups would find these cards useful, particularly due to the brutality of the critical hits and fumbles, and the tongue-in-cheek writing on the cards.  Certainly, some gaming groups might enjoy the humorous style of these cards, riffing off the death-pun write-ups.  But sadly, more immersive role-players would likely simply find these cards an annoying distraction from the real story telling happening in their favorite fantasy role-playing game.

So until next blog… I wish you Happy Gaming!

But I wanted to go a step further and take a look at creating new rituals which would be more like classic psionic powers from previous editions.  My main source of inspiration was the Psionic Handbook from D&D 3.5, which has a wide range of really excellent psionic powers, many of which were not translated into the psionic classes from the 4E PHB3 due to the sheer number of powers (there are tons of them!), and the fact that many of them didn’t fit as either an attack power or a utility power.

But as with many older D&D spells, quite a few of these psionic powers can be translated quite well into rituals, offering heroes a chance to access a different power base to gain their benefits without fitting into the At-Will/Encounter/Daily Attack/Utility framework.  To differentiate these psionic rituals from the standard ones found in other sources, I refer to them as mantras – being defined as a sound, syllable, word, or group of words that is considered capable of creating spiritual transformation – which seems apropos for a psionic ritual.

I came up with three types of psionic mantras developed on Athas to replace those using divine or arcane power to fuel them: Blood Mantras, Soul Mantras, and Spirit Mantras.  Each type of mantra derives its power from a different part of the practitioner, in addition to the gold cost in focus crystals, drawing upon their life force, their psionic power points, or their conscious mind.

Psionic Mantra Basics

Of the three types of psionic mantras, the Blood Mantra is often viewed as dangerous and evil, although they are commonly used quite safely, without causing harm to anyone.  This mantra requires both a focus crystal and a sacrifice of life force in order to activate, usually taken from the practitioner (ritual caster), but can sometimes be borrowed or stolen from other living beings.  The life force is taken in the form of healing surges, and can require more than one to activate the mantra.  If another being is used to supply the life force, and does not have healing surges, then they lose hit points equal to the healing surge value of the practitioner – which might kill the victim if multiple surges are required.

The second type of psionic mantra is the Soul Mantra.  This type of mantra uses psionic power points to activate or channel the mantras’ benefits, so can only be learned by a hero that has psionic power points from their class.  Like the Blood Mantra, the Soul Mantra still requires a focus crystal to supply the material cost, and psionic power points are spent to either initially activate the mantra or are spent while the mantra is active in order to produce the beneficial effects.

The final type of psionic mantra is the Spirit Mantra.  This mantra draws its power from the conscious mind of the practitioner, forcing it into a trance.  Being in a trance does not harm the practitioner, but it does make them more vulnerable to harm if attacked due to their attention being focused on the “spiritual” realms.

New Condition

Entranced: The character voluntarily enters a trance.
Penalties: The character grants combat advantage, and takes a -2 penalty to Perception checks.  The trance can be dropped at any time (free action), but the penalties from the entranced condition last until the end of the character’s next turn.

Athasian Mantras

Adapt Body (Blood)

This mantra allows the caster to overcome adverse effects of environmental conditions, such as extreme heat, frigid cold, or lack of air.  The mantra does not prevent hunger, thirst, or resistance to attacks from fire or cold or attacks delivered by gases/breathing, it merely makes prolonged exposure to such environments tolerable without hardship.  While under the effects of the mantra, the practitioner is not required to make an Endurance roll under the rules for Environmental Dangers or the Rule of Three (see DMG pp 158-9) for dealing with heat, cold, or airless conditions.  The duration for this ability is equal to half the result of the Endurance check in hours, or until the practitioner takes an extended rest.

Cloud Mind (Spirit)

Under the effects of a Cloud Mind mantra, the practitioner can become completely undetectable to a creature (or creatures).  The practitioner can expend a psionic power point when it encounters any creature, and become completely undetectable in the mind of the target, both invisible and inaudible, and undetectable to even tremorsense, scent, and other methods of perception.  So long as the practitioner does not affect the creature in any way, the mantra will continue to keep the creature from noticing the practitioner.  The effect is automatically broken if the practitioner attacks or affects the creature in any way.  The clouding effect may be broken if the practitioner changes something in the creatures environment, such as steals an object, opens a door within plain sight, or is alerted to the practitioner presence by an ally of the target.  The target may make a Perception check against a Hard DC equal to the Level of the practitioner if there is an obvious change in its environment or warned by an ally, at which point the mantra can no longer affect that target.  Additional creatures can be clouded by spending psionic power points, but cannot affect a target which has been previously under the influence of the current mantra, or has been recently harmed by the practitioner.  The mantra lasts until the practitioner takes a short rest and recovers the spent psionic power points.

Danger Sense (Soul)

By initiating this mantra, the practitioner enters a heightened state of awareness, allowing a heightened reaction to danger before it presents itself.  By sacrificing a psionic power point to hold the mantra in the subconscious, the practitioner gains +2 to all defenses against attacks from traps and hazards for the duration of one hour, or until the practitioner takes a short rest.

Empathic Transfer (Spirit/Blood)

Using this mantra allows the practitioner to transfer harmful effects such as poison and disease, or even wounds, from a willing creature to himself.  The practitioner must touch the target during the casting time of the mantra, and both the practitioner and the target enter a trance.  The practitioner spends two healing surges, and the target receives healing equal to the value of one of the practitioner’s surges.  Healing of this type requires no Insight check to complete.  Diseases and poisons can be transferred from the target to the practitioner as well, requiring an Insight check against the Endurance check DC of the disease or poison at the current stage of affliction.  For example, if the practitioner wants to transfer a disease at Stage 2 from the target, the DC to make the transfer is equal to the Endurance check required to heal the affliction.  The disease or poison is removed entirely from the target if the roll is successful, but the practitioner accepts the affliction at its current stage, and must make appropriate rolls to remove it from themselves.

Mind Probe (Spirit)

When this mantra is activated, the practitioner can access any and all memories in a creature’s mind, and force it to give answers to any question posed.  The practitioner must be within ten squares of the target, and must have both line of sight and line of effect to it, and enters a trance to pose the questions.  The practitioner can ask one question of the creature’s memories per round, and the duration lasts for a number of rounds equal to an initial Insight check, divided by 5, rounded down.  If the target is sleeping or unconscious, the practitioner automatically gets answers to the questions asked.  However, a conscious and unwilling target can detect the probing with an Insight Check (Moderate DC for the Level of the practitioner), and attempt to block the probe.  The unwilling targets can make an opposed Bluff check against an additional Insight check from the practitioner to avoid answering the question, but a successful Bluff check does not end the mantra – the practitioner can ask the question again or a new question each round.  Breaking the practitioner’s trance, killing the practitioner, or fleeing beyond the range of the effect, are the only ways to end the mantra prematurely.  Note: the Mind Probe mantra will only reveal answers according to the memories of the target, which might be inaccurate, confused, or have been altered by use of drugs or other psionic mantras.

Modify Memory (Blood/Spirit)

This mantra allows the practitioner to modify the memory of creature, making it forget an event, remember a somewhat different version of an event, or creating memories of a new event that the creature never actually experienced.  The memories cannot be of an event longer than 5 minutes in duration, and an illogical or poorly constructed memory will be automatically dismissed as a bad dream or a fantasy.  The practitioner must enter a trance and expend two healing surges to affect the target’s memories, and the target must be within line of sight in order to be affected by the mantra.  The practitioner makes an Insight check to set the memories in place, and this becomes the DC for a unwilling creature to test against the modified memory with its own Insight check.  If the Insight check fails, the creature will accept the memories without question, making them a permanent part of their life experience.

Psychofeedback (Blood/Soul)

This mantra allows a temporary boost to an ability score of the practitioner’s choice, but causing penalty to two other scores.  The boosted ability score increases by 4, but two other scores must be reduced by 2.  The increased and decreased ability scores affect all other figured characteristics, such that gaining +4 Strength increases carrying capacity, as well as attacks and damage, while a loss of 2 to Wisdom might result in your Will Defense dropping by 1.  The mantra goes into effect when a psionic power point is spent, and the ability scores being affected can be completely changed by a minor action and spending an additional power point.  The effect of the mantra ends after the practitioner takes a short or extended rest.

Read Thoughts (Spirit)

This mantra allows the practitioner to read the basic surface thoughts of minds in a burst 2 area within 10 squares.  The practitioner does not require line of sight or line of effect to the targeted area, but the effect is blocked by 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood or dirt.  Creatures with animal intelligence will have basic instinctual types of thoughts, while intelligent creatures may have surface thoughts that are fairly dull or unrevealing, depending on their current activities.  To read the surface thoughts, an Insight check is required with a DC equal to the Intelligence of the target(s).  If the practitioner tries to read the thoughts of a psionically active creature, the target gets an Insight check (DC Moderate for the Level of practitioner) to realize it is being probed.  Attempting to read the thoughts of a creature with a very high Intelligence (a score 10 or more higher than the practitioner) will cause the effect to end, and the practitioner to be stunned (save ends), and the target instantly aware it has been affected by a psionic sense.  The practitioner must be in a trance when sensing thoughts, and can change the area of effect as a free action once every minute.

Sense Link (Spirit/Blood)

When this mantra is active, the practitioner forms a sensory link to a willing creature, and can see, hear, taste, feel, or smell everything that the target perceives, so long as the target remains within one mile.  Only one sense can be active at a time, however, and the practitioner can change which sense is being perceived using a free action.  While the practitioner is actively receiving sensorium from the target, she must be in a trance, although the link can be dropped and re-established as often as desired until the duration elapses.  To form the sense link, both the practitioner and the willing target must expend a healing surge.  Creatures without surges lose hit points equal to the healing surge value of the practitioner to bind themselves into the link.  The link ends if either the practitioner or target take an extended rest, or is knocked unconscious (taken to 0 hit points).

Sensitivity to Psychic Impressions (Spirit)

This mantra conjures images from a location of past events and the emotions surrounding them.  Locations absorb psychic emanations from powerful events such as births and deaths, festivals and battles, joys and terrors.  The practitioner enters a trance and can read the most recent event which took place in the area, viewing it in real time, and sensing the emotions present.  The event is perceived as shadowy and dreamlike, so minute details of those participating in the event are not discernible.  One cannot read a book from a psychic impression, but one could easily see a tembo devouring a hapless victim.  The practitioner can watch the current event, or skip to the next most recent event as desired.  The mantra reveals the most recent psychic impression at DC 10, with an additional past impression at DCs 15, 20, and 25.

= = = = =

Please feel free to use these psionic mantras as written, or modified to suit your needs, in your own Dark Sun Campaigns.  I welcome comments and feedback about these rituals, and would love to hear ideas for other rituals or suggestions for improving these.

So until next blog… I wish you Happy Gaming!

Images used from the D&D 3.5 Psionic Handbook.

As many of you know, this is the third of the Player’s Options books, which started to be released last year in the spring with Heroes of the Shadowfell and then Heroes of the Feywild coming out just last fall.  This current Player’s Option book is due out later this month on February 21^st, right before the new season of D&D Encounters opens the next day with The Elder Elemental Eye!

For all the details, please click the link below and head over to EN World to read the full pre-release review:

Pre-Release Review of Heroes of the Elemental Chaos by Wizards of the Coast

There is a lot of very intriguing content in this book, and especially material that would finally allow Dungeon Masters to run the Elemental Chaos campaign setting, with characters that are tied to the elements, as opposed to just travelers sightseeing the maelstrom for kicks.  It could lead to a very humorous bit of role-reversal, when the players are forced send their elemental-dwelling heroes to Greyhawk, the Forgotten Realms, or Eberron, searching for something in a mundane realm which might help them deal with a problem brewing back home – in the maelstrom of the Elemental Chaos!

So until next blog… I wish you Happy Gaming!

My own week has been going well, and I am keeping busy bouncing between writing projects.  Besides my own blogs, I have been working on some ideas for a new game system and setting – which is not fantasy role-playing I might add – as well as trying to complete the novel I started during the National Novel Writing Month.  My “Victorian-esque-Post-apacolyptic-Seampunk-Gothic-Horror-Dystopia” novel, with a working title of Sanguis Noctem, continues to move forward, and I have high hopes that I’ll have it completed before the start of summer!  What I do with it at that point is up for some speculation, but I do intend to publish it in some manner, even if it is only done as a Print-On-Demand Web release.

All of which brings us to the topic of today’s review on EN World, a new and (hopefully) upcoming release of Story Forge Cards!  These cards assist in creating not only detailed stories and plotlines for use in role-playing games, novels, or screenplays, but they also can be used to create characters as well, with quite detailed and often surprising backgrounds driving their lives.

For more information about Story Forge Cards, please click the link below and head over to EN World to read all the details in my review:

Pre-Release Review of Story Forge by Kelp Entertainment

I think these cards have some great potential to assist role-players of all genres and game systems, and doubly so if you enjoy not only playing RPGs but also write fiction on the side.  The tarot-like layout system for different types of character and plot development is actually really cool, and I think even the “story poker” game using these cards will have some appeal on slow gaming nights.

Although the cards are just a concept in a Kickstart project for the moment, I think they are worth consideration as a really good role-playing tool.  I wish the author the best of luck in the next six weeks to achieve his goal and see these cards published!

So until next blog… I wish you Happy Gaming!

Q: Which of these orcs is not like the others? A: ALL OF THEM!

But from today’s article, it appears that something else is going on, and honestly, I cannot figure out what it is.  According to Monte, the main goal of D&D Next is to create a system which all editions can use:

To be clear, we’re not talking about creating a bridge so that you can play 1E and 4E at the same time. Instead, we’re allowing you to play a 1E-style game or a 4E-style game with the same rules. Also, players at the table can choose the style of character they want to play.

While this is a praiseworthy idea, as a veteran D&D gamer, I have to ask myself this question:

If they don’t plan on creating a bridge between editions, aren’t they just “reinventing wheels” that gamers already own, and are already happily using year after year?

The THAC0-Monster -Magic Incompatibility

In order to try and create a unifying combat and magic system for D&D Next, the designers have a real conundrum on their hands.  The first, and probably most obvious, stumbling point is the decision about how a monsters and heroes attack each other – in other words, combat.  In the first few editions (Basic, AD&D, 2^nd Edition) of D&D, we used an armor class system ranging from AC 10 to AC -10, and a “to hit” system revolving around THAC0 – To Hit Armor Class 0.  For those D&D gamers joining the editions at 3rd or later, THAC0 is a completely unknown entity, and they have likely never even heard about such a strange concept.  There is an excellent write-up about THAC0 in the Dungeons & Dragons WIKI, by the way, and I have to admit reading through it again was both nostalgic and a bit boggling.

So in order to create a unified D&D Next, the designers will have to either convince the original edition D&D enthusiasts to either abandon THAC0, or to have newer edition gamers learn a new system to determine hits and misses in combat.  I’m pretty sure that neither of these things seem likely, leaving only the possibility that the designers plan to sell a combat/AC/”to hit” system that requires conversion depending on what additional “modules”, as Monte refers to the game complexity add-ons, the players and DMs decide to use.

And then there are monsters to consider…

In every edition, there has been a paradigm shift with how monsters are designed, how their stat blocks are presented, and how many diverse powers a beastie has to use in order to turn heroes into a delicious meal or worm food, depending on the creatures appetites.

For instance, 1^st Edition (AD&D) monster stat blocks were very simple, with little or no variance between monsters of a particular type, and very little advancement possibilities to create higher level versions of a monster.  In essence, 90% of the time in AD&D, an orc was just an orc: it had around 1d8 of hit points, and delivered 1d8 of damage when it hit a hero.  Done.

Now by 3.5, we have an orc that is now much different from its first edition ancestor.  It has a CON bonus to hit points, it has a STR bonus to damage, and it can be advanced to higher levels by adding character classes as overlays, making a simple tribal orc into a champion of its kind as a cleric, fighter, or wizard!

And should I even get started on 4E orcs?  Here we have orcs which can be advanced to any level, given a wide range of powers, and can even be turned into Elite and Solo creatures, capable of challenging heroes of ANY LEVEL – even Epic characters!

And last, but not least, there is a magic system to consider…

All previous editions before D&D 4E used a Vancian magic system, with memorized spells in spell slots which were forgotten after they were cast.  Wizards and clerics had to prepare their spells, and were stuck with what they had in their repertoire, and when they ran out, they were reduced to using weapons to fight, just like the fighters, rogues, and rangers – unless they had a wand, rod, or staff with some charges in it, ready to blast away at their foes.

But even the Vancian magic system changed from edition to edition, particularly with the number of spells that they could use.  For instance, by 3^rd edition, Wizards finally gained bonus spell slots for high Intelligence in the same way that Clerics did in 1^st Edition, and Clerics were given a new boon of Domains to grant them new powers.

Of course, D&D 4E has a magic system of powers which refresh after each short rest, and allow spellcasting heroes to battle on for hours and hours with their arsenal.  Daily powers aside, a caster is never without a spell to cast, even if he only has his At-Wills left.

So are 4E gamers going to freely move to a Vancian system, just because that was the “norm” for the previous editions?

I think the real question here is which system is going to have to make a sacrifice in D&D Next and get used to a completely new style of play in order to be part of the new paradigm?  And just which players of which edition are going to have to settle for a change in order to be brought into D&D Next system?

Like selling ice to frost giants…

I think the sad truth is that the answer to my previous question is: NO ONE.  I honestly cannot figure out exactly who D&D Next is going to be sold to as the new gaming paradigm for playing Dungeons & Dragons.

Players who love their 1^st and 2^nd Edition games have no reason to run out and buy new books, learn a bunch of new rules, and give up their simple stat blocks and THAC0.  They have everything they need to continue to play their D&D games the way they want to.  If they wanted to change to a new edition, they had several new ones to try, but yet they remained true to the original rules system.

Gamers who play 3^rd/3.5 Edition have, by this time, either moved over to Pathfinder, or continue to enjoy their plethora of 3^rd Edition or 3.5 materials in order to enjoy what D&D means to them.  To them, the inherent D&D-ness that Monte and the rest of the designers at WotC are seeking, is already in their hands, amidst the piles of sourcebooks, splat books, and 3^rd party PDFs they purchased years ago.

D&D 4E enthusiasts have a very specific idea of what D&D is to them too, and adopting any of the previous D&D concepts like THAC0, a Vancian magic system, or simplified monster stat blocks with no powers is not going to work.  Like the players of previous editions, 4E players will just hunker down, use the resources they were given, and entrench themselves in the game that they have come to love.

Based upon this recent Legend & Lore article, I think calling the new proposed system D&D Next is a terrible misnomer.  It should really be called D&D Generations (apologies to STNG fans), because it is trying to link together editions and time periods that are very disparate from each other.

Trying to create a basic unifying combat-magic-monster system is simply impossible given the differences in the editions, and frankly, I have no idea who the Marketing Department thinks it’s going to be selling all these new books to, when EVERY D&D GAMER is going to feel that they have to compromise their editions’ unique D&D-ness in order to opt in.

If Wizards of the Coast wants to create D&D Next, they need to seriously start looking at revamping their newest version of D&D 4E, and take it to the next level.  They need to clean up things like feat-creep, power proliferation, and actually design a much better skill system, and designe D&D Next to be all about taking the paradigm started with 4E into the future.  There’s a lot that can be done to make 4E an even better system, and none of it begins with adding retro-edition elements to the game.

And by the way, WotC… I really think that the days are gone where D&D gamers might have fallen for the old “if we print it, they will buy it” scheme.  That might have worked when you guys had all-star writers on your team, and D&D gamers followed their favorite authors’ product lines like avid collectors – but Hasbro’s firing policy certainly ended that practice.  In my opinion, if you create a new version of D&D, and force every gamer to compromise their editions’ own unique qualities in order to buy in, you’re going to just have a lot of books stacked in Hasbro warehouses, and a dead franchise being played around the world using your previous editions.

So until next blog… I wish you Happy Gaming!

By the way, I got a chance to check out a couple of the Innistrad Set 1 intro decks – Deathly Dominion and Carnival of Blood – and posted a Review on EN World for those interested in reading more about these decks.

And also new this week, WotC released a MTG app to the iTunes store called the Magic the Gathering: Toolbox.  While I don’t have an Apple product to try it out on, the user reviews at the iTunes store were fairly brutal.  Apparently, users felt that the functions and speed of the app were underwhelming at best, which seems to confirm once again that the programmers at WotC really need to get sharper or they need to start farming their programming projects out of house.

On a lighter note, I also got one of the new decks, the Relentless Dead, and it’s quite a nasty piece of work.  It’s built on the premise of raising zombies, and actually gains more power as you lose zombies to the graveyard by giving opportunities to bring in more powerful undead.  The deck was a lot of fun to play with and actually gave me a fighting chance against Tizzbin’s nasty Carnival of Blood deck that I had trouble beating a few weeks ago.

Now I also mentioned in my title that I thought these new MTG Innistrad cards were good news for 4E DMs, and it’s true.  There is a considerable amount of solid inspiration in these cards for Dungeon Masters working on advancing their Shadowfell campaigns!

Intro Decks of Dread

One of the big features of the Shadowfell setting are the Domains of Dread, those little pocket dimensions of evil where nasty baddies await unsuspecting heroes.  Many of these new decks have great potential for inspiring new Domains of Dread, providing not only new monsters, but also spell effects and magical terrain effects that might be prevalent in the domain.

And one of the nice side benefits of using MTG decks to inspire Shadowfell adventures is the ton of free art that comes with them.  I personally enjoy displaying cool art and pictures to my players as part of the adventure, and the illustrations found in these new Innistrad cards are particularly good.  Using them in conjunction with some new undead and monster creations can add a lot to a Shadowfell campaign.

My own Forgotten Realm campaign is about to head off into the Shadowfell in pursuit of the evil Doombringer cultists that have been plaguing them since 1^st Level, and I’m finding some nice ideas for new critters and villains among these new cards.  It will be a lot of fun to drop new elite monsters such as the Farbog Boneflinger, Lumberknot, or Splinterfright on my heroes, and have some cool art to go illustrate the fights!

Of course, I’ve also been enjoying my renewed interest in playing MTG with some of my friends.  It’s a perfect “beer&pretzels” game to pull out when we can’t get everyone together to play D&D.  Personally, I’ll be interested to see if Wizards of the Coast decides to create a “fey realm” style MTG deck in the near future – seems like a pretty nifty way to link two great products together.

So until next blog… I wish you Happy Gaming!

Editor’s Note: This Reviewer received a complimentary copy of the product from which this blog was written.

Remember this, gamers: It is never a bad thing to feed your DM… you might just survive the sceanario!

As it is also Wednesday, I have a new EN World Review this week, featuring a fantasy role-laying supplement from Taurus Twelve.  This product is designed to create coinage and rare coin treasures for use in any fantasy role-playing game system, with emphasis on use with Pathfinder and D&D 4E.

To find out all the details about this product, click on the link below and head over to EN World to read the complete review:

Review of They Shall Be Paid In Coin of the Realm by Taurus Twelve

Regretfully, this product is fairly lackluster, and a bit of a disappointment, as you’ll read in the review.  While I like to support any 3^rd Party Publisher attempting to make products under the GSL and OGL, one always hopes to see something new and innovative, rather than derivative and poorly put together.  I have seen some good things from Taurus Twelve in the past, and I hope that this product is more of an aberration, rather than a new trend.

After all, you can, at least you can slay an aberration… or force it back into the Far Realms where it belongs!

So until next blog… I wish you Happy Gaming!

Today is the first day of the DDXP convention down in Indiana this weekend, and I understand that some of us have had a chance to try their hand at D&D Next.  In fact, EN World has a transcript of excerpts from the D&D Next Seminar from the DDXP convention, and there is a lot of interesting tidbits being dropped by Mike Mearls, Jeremy Crawford, and Monte Cook about the new edition!

But getting back to the main purpose of today’s blog, which is to discuss my review of the Pathfinder adventure module by Rite Publishing called The Breaking of Forstor Nagar.  This is not only a well-written and complete adventure for the Pathfinder system, but also includes a FREE bonus – the files needed to run the adventure using the Maptools RPG app!

For more information about this adventure module, please click the link below and head over to EN World to read all the details in my review:

Review of The Breaking of Forstor Nagar by Rite Publishing

So if you’re in the market for a unique adventure module for your Pathfinder campaign, and you’ve always wanted to try the Maptools RPG app, then The Breaking of Forstor Nagar should be well worth trying out!  After seeing what Maptools can do for this Pathfinder module, I’m definitely looking at learning the app for my own 4E games as well!

So until next blog… I wish you Happy Gaming!

In honor of the snowy weather, I have reviewed the Winter Edition of Kobold Quarterly Magazine – Issue #20 – and the first installment of the 2012 calendar year.  Packed with articles for Pathfinder, D&D 4E, and Dragon AGE, this independent magazine offers articles on a wide range of topics from freelance fantasy RPG writers all over the world.

For the complete review, please click the link below and head over to EN World to read the full details of the article:

Review of Kobold Quarterly Issue #20 (Winter 2012) by Open Design

Sadly, as I mentioned in my review of the Fall Issue of KQ, the amount of 4E material is definitely on the decline.  And the D&D 4E articles in Issue 20 are not only few in number, but are quite frankly poorly written, and show a flagrant disregard to game balance and class/power structure in the 4^th edition rules.  For Pathfinder gamers, KQ still has a lot to offer, but sadly, it is quite rapidly losing its place as the “Switzerland of the Edition Wars” in my way of thinking.

So until next blog… I wish you Happy Gaming!

But my Athas campaign has always bothered me a little bit, because rituals don’t really seem to “fit” into the setting.  This is mainly because rituals are either arcane or divine, and the Dark Sun Setting doesn’t deal very well with heroes using arcane magic, due to the defiling issues, and divine magic is somewhat useless without gods around to power them.  Sure primordial forces could be used as a substitute for the power source, but rituals requiring Religion or Arcana skill rolls might be problematic.

Then there is the problem with residuum, which would be incredibly rare in a world where magic items are scarce, and no one would really want to be running off and destroying them for a few ounces of enchanted dust.

So I started looking at ways the rituals might have evolved in a world where magic is shunned, and psionics became the standard power base, and how I might incorporate that into my Dark Sun Campaign.

Residuum Substitution

As far as using residuum goes, from a game balance point of view, it’s really just a money sink.  In a standard magic rich world like the Forgotten Realms of Eberron, residuum is readily available in any major city or large town, and can most likely be purchased from any apothecary shop.  This magical dust is merely a reason to provide a cash flow out of the character coffers, in order to give the ritual a certain gold piece value per casting.

In Dark Sun, a similar material can be used, but one that might be more appropriate to the setting.  For instance, one might use something similar to the old 3.5 D&D cognizance crystals or power stones from the Psionics Handbook.  On might call these ritual-use items focus crystals, and they can be purchased in various sizes and grades, offering a certain gold piece value like a bag of residuum would.

As a focus crystal is used during rituals, it becomes more opaque, darker, or cracked, representing the value of the stone depleting as its gold piece value is used up.  When it is drained, it becomes a worthless rock or simply shatters to sandy particulates, and a new one would have to be obtained to use to cast psionic rituals.

Technically, any item would do, but for psionic rituals, the idea of using some sort of crystal is quite evocative of the rituals practiced by the Deryni in in Katherine Kurtz novels, who used psionics rather like magic in her world setting.  Also, psycho-active crystals seem quite natural to a rocky desert-like setting such as Dark Sun, and adventurers might stumble across natural focus crystal formations near the lairs of psionic monsters, and would provide an alternative treasure type to mere gold or survival days.

Alternatives to Skill Checks

Another thing which might be used to differentiate psionic rituals from standard arcane or divine ones might be in how they are activated.  Using alternatives to Arcana and Religion, which dominate so many of the standard rituals seems quite a reasonable consideration for the Dark Sun Setting, but there are some good choices which can be used in their stead.

For some psionic rituals, the Nature skill might be appropriate to represent those that deal with altering the physiology of oneself or others, such as rituals to banish exhaustion or inure oneself to extreme elemental conditions.  The Insight skill might be appropriate for use in rituals which create extra-sensory perception, such as clairvoyance or clairaudience, or for altering the memory of others or to recall information.  And some psionic rituals are merely about focusing raw psionic energies for long periods of time, which might make the Endurance skill a reasonable check for success or failure.

In the end, it will take a bit of common sense to interpret a standard ritual and the ritual check into a Dark Sun psionic ritual.  However, not all rituals would necessarily be appropriate to the setting, and must be judged on a case by case basis.

True Psionic Rituals

Another source I’ve been considering for creating psionic rituals for the Dark Sun Campaign setting is the old Psionics Handbook from 3.5 D&D.  Many of the non-combat psionic powers would be quite appropriate to be revamped into 4E game statistics, and made into psionic rituals for use in Athas.

For example, psionic powers such as Adapt Body, Chameleon, and Darkvision would all have great potential as adventuring rituals, providing relief from the Athasian suns, the ability to sneak past enemies, or to see monsters in the dark sneaking up to attack the camp at night.  And as discussed previously, these powers would be activated using alternative skill checks, such as Nature (Adapt Body, Chameleon) and Insight (Darkvision), without having to invoke divine or arcane power.

[Editor’s Note: I’m currently working on a more complete list of ideas for psionic rituals drawn from old 3.5 Psionic Powers, and I’ll be sure and post a full list of candidates in a subsequent blog.]

Another facet of psionic rituals that I am considering for my campaign is triggered abilities, and using psionic power points to activate them.  These would be for psionic powers that would take the form of Encounter Powers in a combat, which are set up ahead of time using a ritual.  Like the other rituals, these would be non-combat abilities – i.e. non-attacks – but would have a use in combat to gain a tactical advantage without dealing damage or inflicting conditions of others.

For instance, a hero might know that she is going to be searched before entering the presence of an evil merchant prince, and might set up Call Weaponry before she goes in.  This would allow her to spend a psionic power point and cast a ritual beforehand, which then sets up a trigger to be able to teleport her favorite carrikal from off the saddlebags of her crodlu in time to strike a death blow against her enemies.  Sure she’s down one psionic power point for the combat, but having one’s favorite weapon handy at a moment’s notice can be a priceless advantage to have!

Conclusions

Obviously, I’m still working out all the kinks of the psionic rituals for Dark Sun, but I think it’s well worth considering to add another facet to the Athas setting.  While rituals using Arcana and Religion would have faded from use due to the loss of the gods, and the dangers of defiling the land, the advent of psionics would have filled that vacuum with a new assortment of rituals.

So until next blog… I wish you Happy Gaming!

Image Source: D&D 4E Psionic Powers by WotC