As expected a number of posts quickly popped up on the RPG Bloggers Network discussing the new content, I think the new mechanic was particularly well summarized by one of the Network’s newest members Geek Ken:

…it looks like an interesting class. What I particularly like is how the implementation of power abilities are slightly tweaked. Players slowly expand primarily with their at will powers and get daily and utility powers as normal. They gain no encounter powers. Rather they obtain power points (starting with 2) that they spend to augment their at will powers. Most at will powers can be augmented twice, effectively having 3 ‘levels’ of effects. After a short rest, they regain those points back. They’ll end up with the same number encounter powers as other players, just some differences in the game mechanics for using them.

Of particular interest to me is the fact that introducing a new, and relatively different, mechanic to the game has caused many to instantly decree imbalance and broken status upon the class.  The xenophobia runs strong as usual it seems, since it’s different clearly things must be imbalanced!  What I’d like to do is take a detailed look at the Psion class by the numbers as it relates to previous 4th Edition class design.

Heroic Tier (10th level) – PHB class

• 2 At-Will Powers
• 3 Encounter Powers
• 3 Utility Powers
• 3 Daily Powers

Heroic Tier (10th level) – Psion

• 3 At-Will Powers
• 6 Power Points (augment cost 1 or 2)
• 3 Utility Powers
• 3 Daily Powers

In any given encounter, you can expect a Heroic tier character to use all three encounter powers, 1 daily, and 1 utility power.  The Psion regains power points during a short rest, so in one encounter you can expect them to use three fully augmented powers.  However, the Psion has added versatility in the ability to instead use six lower augmented powers, or any combination of the two in addition to having the ability to re-use the same augmented power multiple times.

Paragon Tier (20th level) – PHB class

• 2 At-Will Powers
• 4 Encounter Powers
• 5 Utility Powers
• 4 Daily Powers

Paragon Tier (20th level) – Psion

• 3 At-Will Powers
• 9 Power Points (augment cost 1 or 4)
• 1 Encounter Power (augment cost 2)
• 5 Utility Powers
• 4 Daily Powers

A paragon character is expected to use 4 encounter powers in each encounter, and with one use each this is pretty cut and dry.  The adaptability of the Psion really starts to shine in the Paragon tier, with 9 power points to choose from they can manifest their one encounter power, one fully augmented paragon level at-will power, one fully augmented heroic tier at-will power, and one lesser augmented at-will power.  On the other hand, the Psion could choose to use two fully augmented paragon at-wills and then have 1 PP left to spend on a lesser augmented power.  In the first example the Psion is actually using the exact same number of “encounter” powers as any other class.  If they really wanted to spread things out they could decide to just use nine lesser augmented at-will powers.

Epic Tier (30th level) – PHB class

• 2 At-Will Powers
• 4 Encounter Powers
• 7 Utility Powers
• 4 Daily Powers

Epic Tier (30th level) – Psion

• 3 At-Will Powers
• 17 Power Points (augment cost 2 or 6)
• 1 Encounter Power (augment cost 2)
• 7 Utility Powers
• 4 Daily Powers

The epic tier looks much the same as paragon, with the highest level at-will powers costing 2 or 6 PP, the Psion can use two of them and have 5 PP left over to use another two encounter powers.  UH OH!  Now we see the Psion has one lonely power point left over to use on a lesser augmented at-will power.  This is the first hint I’ve gotten of the new Psion class having any edge over other classes except when it comes to versatility, which is really an advantage that can only be determined during actual play.

So is the new Psion class unbalanced?  In the preview as presented, it might be, but from what I can tell only at the highest level of epic tier play does that advantage begin to really show itself mechanically.  Some people will say they have the advantage of more diversity in at-will powers, but because of that they also lack the diversity of being able to choose different types of attacks/effects in their encounter powers, so I see this as a very well balanced class in that regard.  The big question becomes, is the ability to use a large number of weaker encounter powers or a smaller number of regular encounter powers (or a mix of the two) a mechanical advantage over just having a regular number of encounter powers?

We’ve had a lot of Origins 2009 coverage over the last week, and on Saturday celebrating the 4th of July Dave and I realized that GenCon is only a few weeks away.  This realization makes me ponder what keeps me going through such hectic times, and more often than not the answer always comes back to caffeine.  I’ve been a huge soda fiend since middle school, and even though my day job has stopped buying soda but still provides coffee, I just can’t bear switching over!

My assumption is that most of you are fans of my favorite legal addictive substance as well, so let us find out what the most popular source is!

In discussing the topic with Phil the Chatty DM, he pointed me to this great website that lists the various sources of caffeine and how much each contains per oz.  It’s definitley useful information to have at hand.

Before the event started, an audience member asked if he was going to be writing anything for 4e. He replied that he had mostly retired from game design, but the Dungeon-A-Day project was just such a cool idea that it brought him back for it.

Dungeons are often maligned as an old fashioned way to do a D&D adventure. Monte loves dungeons, and thinks they are a great way to tell an adventure.

As stated in the 3e DMG, dungeons are cool because if you step back from them and look at them in the abstract, they’re just adventure flowcharts. “You go to hallway to room 1, and then it forms to room 2 or room 3.” These are decision points that branch, and PCs can make decisions off that, etc. Another way to look at it is that the dungeon as an abstraction for how we tell stories in role playing games. RPGs tell stories in very different ways than books and movies, because they’re ongoing- they’re more like TV series or comics. Stories are broken down into small bits, but lumped together to form a story arc, and story arcs form campaign. Dungeons are like that as well: a bunch of rooms or encounters, themed together into a level. Then put levels together and you’ve got a megadungeon.

It’s a very interesting way to explore and stage and pace an RPG, even if you’re not dealing with a traditional “ruins labyrinth” setting. You can think of any kind of adventure location as a dungeon. You can have an adventure where you go off into the woods, and the paths branch there as well, and really, you’ve got a dungeon, but instead of walls you have trees. That idea can be applied to urban adventures as well. In an investigation, you come to a clue, have two options to follow up on. Not talking about hallways, but paths of inquiries, but it’s the same structure.

One of the cool things about dungeons is that they’re good for beginning DMs because they’re spatially limited. You only have to prepare for those choices.

You can take the dungeon as an adventure design module and apply it to just about anything.

Talking about a traditional dungeon (as in “& Dragons”), the most maligned aspect of dungeons it that they’re not realistic. Monsters living next to each other with treasure, etc. Whenever he uses the term “realism” in games, I put quotes around it. To an extent, it’s an impossible goal to reach. Nothing in RPGs is truly realistic. As soon as you abstract damage to HP, you’re talking about an abstraction. As a game master, going for realism isn’t necessarily a laudable goal. Instead, go for believability, and for that, context is important.

When players sit down, they have a willingness to believe. When you give them something they can’t believe, it breaks “realism.” Give them a sense of believability, give them a sense that it’s real without any glaring, obvious problems. “Why do these gnolls live next to this dragon?” If there’s a death trap in the way, how do the residents get there? (or go to the bathroom?) As long as you can avoid those big, glaring errors, they’re willing to go along with you. Realism isn’t a big a problem: if it is, they probably should be playing some other game.

The key to any kind of RPG is that the players need to be able to make real decisions. When they can’t make any decisions, it’s a railroad game. Good example of dungeon design is that the dungeon is not design linearly. You can make a railroad dungeon, but it’s boring (and map is boring). A dungeon is a great opportunity to make decisions, because it’s a bit more challenging. It has to be an interesting decision as well: do we go left or go right is not that interesting. You might as well not give them that since it’s random. If you can, give them information they need to make informed decision. One pretty straightforward way to do it: if they look left, it’s entirely black. If they look right, there’s flickering flames. On the right, something intelligent down there that needs light to see. A somewhat informed decision. A more informed one could be: screams of torment and pain down the left, nothing down the right. More dramatic decision: the paladin goes down that way.

It all comes down to description. The players see the game world through the game master’s decision. The only conduit is through the game master. The more description you can give (without being pedantic and boring) the better. Dungeons can get boring (30×30 with 2 doors), but give them more information so they have something they can go on.

One idea been lost since the earliest days of D&D: the idea of discovery for its own sake. In the earliest days of D&D, everyone’s adventure was to go down into a dungeon and explore. It was all about “what’s beyond that next door, what’s down this hallway, what interesting things will happen when a lever is pulled.” That can be really fun and rewarding by itself. Not part of a giant quest to save the world. Not part of a complicated storyline. It’s a story in and of itself: what’s in this chest, what’s behind this curtain. It seems small and unimportant, but can be fun around the game table.

In a big quest, things won’t get resolved for 6 months to a year from now.But if you’re just exploring the woods, the question is raised, and then it is answered, and it’s immediate gratification. It’s a very valuable tool to keep people interested. It’s also fun for the DM to have things found by the players. For example, in his games, Bruce opened every door and pulled every lever. You need that guy in your game. You love him as a DM. If nobody opens the door, you’ve wasted the time to create that room (though you can always lift it and put it somewhere else).

Lots of times DMs put out interesting adventure hooks and time limits. “Go capture these kobolds in this dungeon to stop them” or “stop this ritual before the full moon” but in both those scenarios, you’re encouraging people not to explore. They’ll say they don’t have time for that. A lot of published adventures are like this too. A DM leads by the nose is bad, but just as bad is a DM pushing them ever-forward. In a dungeon environment, it’s cool to just let them go and explore, and people will find it entertaining, maybe moreso than you think.

Those are the big topics. What followed was a Q&A session:

Q: In shorter game sessions (3-4 hours), what ways are there to design a dungeon so they don’t lose their flow, and so they can be segmented appropriately?
A: If you have the ability, write notes on the battlemap as you go, and just keep it rolled, so that the text and what happened is preserved.

A good way to quickly drag players back into what’s going on is using the cliffhanger. Instead of just saying “you defeated the goblins and looted them, let’s stop here,” let them press on, and tell them “you see a huge looming shape with bat-like wings… and that’s where we’ll pick up next week.” After they have heard the description, they’ll think about that for the week. Tension and suspense can create memory triggers.

Monte runs two biweekly games. On the Thursday before a Sunday game, email will have recap of what happened. Do it in such a way that it’s both a recap, but their interest is piqued. Include information that didn’t come out in the previous session.

Q: About making informed decisions. When trying to avoid being linear and not leading the PCs by the nose, but the information they’re given pushes them towards one path. How to make the party have an actual choice.
A: Previous examples were clear and obvious, Make something interesting down both ways. They’re still making an informed decision, and you’re not showing any bias. “Clearly the DM wants us to go left, so we’ll go left.” That’ll happen a little bit. You can simply and honestly create situations where you don’t have a preference over which way they go. Give them two choices that are cool.

A lot of times, game masters will just create enough adventure for that session, so they say “this door is locked, can’t go this way, but THIS way…” The more you can honestly not have your own preference, the more of a choice it will be.

Q: When teaching video game design classes, the questioner takes D&D and puts them into level design. How do you nudge towards getting people to go one way, without being a jerk?
A: Very hard to do in a video game situation. As a DM, you know your players. If your players are interested in treasure, or weird magic stuff, or the ranger hates Orcs, it’s easy to tell how they’ll react. A DM has big advantage over game designer. A game designer can do obvious things like “screams of pain and torment”, but it’s harder to motivate in a generic sort of way.

Sometimes it’s character class and race, but most of the time it’s personality type. It would be interesting at the beginning of a computer game if they asked you what kind of game you wanted to play.

Q: Published adventures tends to be story driven and pull or push people. The questioner prefers old school where people make their own story. Even in a story driven game- modern players have less imagination.
A: Some players are motivated by helping the story along. They can be weaned away from that a bit by getting the point across that the players are in charge. That can be really rewarding. Not going to bash on games that are heavily story oriented, but it can be rewarding when the players are proactive instead of reactive. If you can set up a situation where the players aren’t just reacting to “town on fire”, but instead “we set up a thieves’ guild”, it can be very fun. Then the DM is the one reacting then.

In a dungeon, it’s easy to do. The story hook may be nothing more than “there’s a fabulous rod of whomever somewhere in this dungeon that grants magical powers” or even more story based like “a cure for the ailing king” it still can push them to be proactive in looking for it.

When talking to other game designers, or people who want to be game designers, the big thing he says is that you’re not a storyteller. The players and DM are the storytellers. The module is just providing a forum for helping other people telling a story. You can get some interesting stories by providing the dungeon and seeing what happens.

Q: Questioner created an NPC/Location-based game. Detailed a dozen NPCs with goals, motivations, etc. And location where different things happen at different times. Have players choose a story.
A: “Generally called a sandbox.”

Q: …but when he tried to run it, it wasn’t enough direction for the players. It worked fine from session to session, but it was challenging to keep it going.
A: Best way to handle that kind of setup is to do it either way. Say “here’s the world/setting/dungeon” and you can explore and do whatever you want. If you see them floundering, you can drop some adventure hooks in, and once those ordinary quests are done, they can investigate stuff they were interested in. They can bounce between reactive and proactive.

Some discussion followed on running a sandbox, providing information to the players, and doing a scavenger hunt-style game.

One of the hallmarks of the “old school” dungeon is that the deeper you go, the harder it is, but the greater the rewards. It seems simplistic, and maybe not “realistic”, but it’s interesting from a game play stand point. It gives information when they come to stairs. It creates risk/reward scenarios, with resource management. It seems simplistic, but if you embrace it or develop similar tropes, it empowers the players to make decisions.

Q: How do you prevent the dungeon from feeling like a feedback loop? Get more stuff to get tougher to kill more stuff…
A: “You’ve described the majority of role playing games.” When you break it down to the basics, that is often what it’s about. He doesn’t know how to avoid it, because that’s how the game is played. Give the players other goals and flavor that are less game mechanic based (and more story) and those things become less glaringly abuse.

One thing lost in more modern games is the weird character sheet: notations of weird stuff that has happened throughout the course of the campaign that doesn’t fit into the specific boxes. People in pre-published modules are afraid to be way too outside the box. If you’re creating a module for levels 7-8, you don’t know what’s coming before or after, so you can’t account for that. TSR always said “do whatever you want as long as you put the toys back at the end.”

With something like Dungeon-A-Day, since it’s a whole campaign, you can be more free to have interesting things happen to the characters, because that’s fun and interesting. In a weird way, no matter what edition you’re talking about, the options in the book are the least interesting things that can happen to your character. The most talked about and remembered are the ones that go outside the rules.

One of the characters in his campaign has a magic ring that he has no idea what it can do or what it does, and is intelligent. It can absorb magic items and produce magic effects. If it absorbs armor, it provides protection. Monte has no idea how it works either, narrating on the fly. Something like that couldn’t be in a published product, but can put in your own campaign as long as your players trust you. Another weird thing about the ring is that it telepathically taps into the mind of someone in our world, and someone who plays D&D and video games.

Q: How do you deal with different types of players in the different dungeon scenarios?
A: Sometimes players complain that they have too many options. Every time Monte shows up to a game, there are 5-6 new cool things to do, and the players haven’t finished the previous 20. Many DMs who play things linearly have time constraints, and don’t have time to prepare more or come up with stuff on the fly. Linearity comes from timidness. The ability to come up with a lot of different options is challenging for a DM, so when a path is forced it shows nervousness to go outside the box.

Q: What if you are someone with time constraints?
A: There’s no problem with pre-published adventures. But if you don’t like them, you have to do more with the time you’ve got. Come up with more choices, but less details, and become more comfortable with developing on the fly. Don’t tell the players, but you can do a dungeon entirely on the fly. No matter what they choose, you add something. He’s not a big fan of that approach, but it works if you’re pressed for time.

“This is the kind of place where Monte would put a trap”- that’s bad metagame thinking. The more you expose yourself to other adventures, the better. We all develop our own boxes, and breaking out of those is really helpful. Originally started Dungeon-A-Day as stand alone encounters, but started to link them into campaigns or arc, with the idea that they could also stand alone. He takes published adventures and rips them out (sometimes literally). None of the players know where they came from (or really cares)… no matter where it’s from, it all works.

Q: When running a published adventure- what if someone has run it?
A: You need to have trust with your players. Tell your players “don’t read Dungeon magazine” if you’re planning on running from them. You can change pieces of information. People who have written or read a lot can’t remember everything.

Q: Favorite dungeon monster?
A: Beholder!

One of the biggest draws of any big game convention is the exhibit hall, and Origins is no exception. This year saw a return to using the entirety of the exhibit hall for booths (even though as always there are some strange presences: recruiters for the Department of Immigration and Naturalization jumps out, as well as the large booth for a Carrom organization). There’s always plenty for gamers to spend their hard earned cash on, and this year saw a number of new releases, as well as some hidden gems recommended to me by other show-goers that may have been around previously.

I also recorded a few short blurbs at some of the booths to give you a little more of the experience of being there.

Dice

No gaming convention would be complete without its dice sellers. The Crystal Caste booth was the most prominent upon entering the hall, but GameScience had a significantly expanded presence (with laptops playing Colonel Zocchi’s dice video and volunteers hand-inking dice), and both Chessex and Koplow had their usual offerings.

Z-Man

Z-Man had two games nominated for the Origins Award for best board game (Agricola and Pandemic, with Pandemic ultimately winning the category) and had plenty of copies of both for sale. However, the big deal for me was picking up Tales of the Arabian Nights, since I knew there was a limited number of copies. The stack above is what was there shortly after opening, and they were completely sold out by Saturday. I’m glad I picked up my copy when I did, but I sure didn’t like lugging around that heavy box for my first pass around the hall!

Dominion

It was a great show for Dominion… Dominion: Intrigue, the first expansion, came out to great acclaim at Origins. Then it won the Origins Award for best card game (up against stiff competition). Then right after the show, it won Spiel Des Jahres! There was also a different booth in the hall with the above sign, which I thought was a very smart move.

Rio Grande, in addition to putting out Intrigue, also had an expansion set to Race for the Galaxy that many went straight for when the hall opened.

Bucephalus Games

I profiled this new game company earlier, and was happy to see them have a better located booth this year. I also complimented them on having some of the most photogenic displays of their boardgames that I’ve seen. I picked three of their (many) games to profile that I thought the Critical Hits readers would be interested in, and got Anthony Gallela, their VP (and former executive director of GAMA), to explain them in a few minute spiels.

• Dwarven Dig (MP3)
• Zombie Mosh (MP3)
• Timestreams (MP3)

Are You The Traitor?

Looney Labs debuted a brand new game at Origins: Are You The Traitor?, a Werewolf-style party game with a Lord of the Rings-style theme. I’ve been excited for this one to come out for a while (disclaimer: I worked heavily as a playtester on it) and so was really happy to finally see it in print and in the hands of eager players. It’s not the game for everyone: like many psychologically based games, it doesn’t always click what the “moves” are when you first play, but to someone like me who loves that genre (and the theme), it hits all my gaming tastes right away. My favorite Looney Labs game, now available to all.

One other note about Looney Labs: this Origins held the 20th Annual International Icehouse tournament. Congrats to my roommate Jacob for winning it all (again), and for the Looneys for putting on such a prestigious event.

North Star Games

Sticking in the “party games made by Marylanders” for a moment, North Star Games had their hits Say Anything (which won the Origins Award for best Children’s, Family, or Party Game) and Wits & Wagers being demoed almost constantly. They also released a Wits & Wagers expansion with new trivia cards, as well as 4 promo trivia cards made by boardgaming folks. Of course, they also featured the giant Select-O-Matic 5000 prize wheel, which must have been the creation of some kind of genius…

Things I Want And Can’t Afford

OK, not an actual company, but two booths that stood out in that area at Origins. First, the Dwarven Forge booth (which I would probably own more of if they stocked any in their booth) featuring its always amazing 3D dungeon terrain, and the Sultan gaming tables, specialized wooden tables customized for gaming. Dwarven Forge sets cost a few hundred a pop, whereas each Sultan table floated in the thousands. Once this blogging thing makes me fabulously rich, I’ll be sure to pick some up… or maybe the companies will give me review copies? Pretty please?

Dark Platypus Studio

I’ve seen one of Dark Platypus’s products in previous years: the Bendy Dungeon Walls, which are pretty neat and easy way to add some 3D to your game. This year, they had a number of other products, including magnetic condition flags (which improve on the Alea magnets both for being obvious what they mean and not causing magnetic craziness) and a magnetically receptive battlemap. Geek’s Dream Girl has already talked about these a bit, but I also recorded a short bit with the owner to have him explain the different products.

• Dark Platypus Studio (MP3)

Hellas RPG and Maid RPG

I missed what the collective booth was called (edit: it was the Khepera Publishing booth, which also included Ninja Burger and Vox), but this was a collection of smaller RPG publishers sharing booth space and explaining each other’s games. Maid I recognized because of certain bloggers, but Hellas I had never heard of, being described to us as “300 in Space” and using a really great sounding Fate mechanic that allows you to do awesome things… but when you run out, your fate has come to pass. After checking it out, we were told by Monte Cook that it was one of the coolest things he had seen at the show, so I had to go back and record an explanation of the game. Not that I needed the urging: Hellas is an amazingly put together product, which marries great production values (especially for a small company) with a unique setting and very interesting sounding mechanics.

• Hellas (MP3)

Also, I promised that I would publish the photo from Maid of a favored piece of art:

Game Publisher’s Association

Across the aisle from the previous booth, but together in spirit, was the Game Publisher’s Association. They sell a number of small press games (RPGs, board games, and otherwise). I checked them out to pick up some of the Asmadi Games I was missing (including the brilliant Win, Lose, or Banana) but noticed they also covered some old favorites like Battlestations.

Wealth of Nations

At the Origins awards, I got an @ reply from someone else there, and it turned out to be Jennifer Norris from Tablestar Games. She invited me to come by the next day and check out the Origins Award-nominated board game Wealth of Nations, and so I did! I recorded her explanation of the game, and hope to be able to give a full review after I play it.

• Wealth Of Nations (MP3)

Steampunk

Just as an example, you can buy more than just games at Origins. I’m pretty sure this steampunk apparel booth was new, and definitely a welcome change from all the corset vendors (I also noticed no Utilkilt booth this year). I was strongly tempted to buy one of the hats with goggles, though I’m always worried about buying hats to fit my big head.

Chibithulhu

Last year, I bought a lot of Cthulhu paraphernalia at the combined SJ Games/Atlas Games/FFG/Cthulhu stuff booth. This year, I picked up the little guy above for Geek’s Dream Girl who was fawning over it all weekend, as well as a new Miskatonic University sticker for my new laptop. I love all the stuff they sell that just pretends like Miskatonic University is a real college. I’ve been wearing the hat from them since last year, and gotten asked on more than one occasion “Where is Miskatonic?” (The answer is either: A. in a book, or B. in Massachusetts).

Battletech Pods

We close with something that was actually OUTSIDE of the exhibit hall, in the walkway. A row of pods was connected along the wall, each one bringing you into the cockpit of your very own Battletech mech (or a video game simulation thereof). I didn’t get a chance to try it, but a friend who did said that while the graphics were worse than a home computer, it was still a lot of fun and not all that expensive for just a session or two. I’m hoping to give it a try myself at GenCon, and face off against Bartoneus… he won’t be able to use his headshot-rolling dice for this!

You can read Alex’s recap of why he voted the way he did on individual entries. I can tell you that I evaluated the entries primarily on a strong core concept, with a healthy dose of “would I want to run or play in this?” The details of what was in each individual room were mostly lost to me, as a lot of it blended together. (This differed from most of my fellow judges, I’m sure). The ones I enjoyed the most were the ones that jumped out as “wow, this idea is cool” and then followed up with a solid execution. Even just evaluating on those two factors, there was still a lot of work to cut the list down to just a few winners.

To those who didn’t win anything, don’t despair… there were plenty of favorites among the judges that we just didn’t have enough prizes to award everything we liked. Hopefully some of you will take your one page idea and run with it, whether it’s just for your own campaign, or make a full adventure out of it.

First thing is to decide what “duration” you’ll see the villain: 

• campaign-long villains
• tier-long villains
• adventure villains
• encounter villains

Once you determine the scale of the villain, you’ll know how detailed to make it.

They took some suggestions from the audience, and assigned them to some of the roles:

• social city villain: encounter or adventure villain
• destroy the artifact: campaign villain
• descent into evil: tier villain

The Encounter Villain

The next step is to figure out its MO. A social/city villain probably uses deception and trickery, but also probably uses lackeys for the physical aspects.

Next figure out how the PCs are going to interact with the villain, and what he is after. In this case, he wants to gain political power. Once the goal is in mind, ask “why does he want that goal?” An easy answer is that he wants to gain political power to get more wealth.

Now, since it’s an urban villain, you’ll want to pick some race that works well in a political environment… in other words, not an otyugh or gelatinous cube. This also describes the rough physical form, and you should give one or two descriptive details- this provides a hook to recall the NPC later. If you inflate a characteristic to almost caricature level, the players will latch on to it. It may seem melodramatic to you, but it helps aid rememberance. Remember, in a regular encounter, the PCs will only be interacting with him for about an hour.

One example of a memorable hook: a villain with no skin or hair, but his face was nailed to his skull. PCs always remembered that guy. Players miss the smaller details unless you say it 3-4 times.

Suggestions from the audience: Human Necromancer, Doppelganger, Wily Gnome with Quirky Sense of Humor, Human Reformed Barbarian Thug. They settled on: “Wily Gnome Seeking Political Power Because He Wants Wealth.”

Then figure out the monster role. Skirmisher was suggested. Skirmisher has to have mobility. Since he’s probably not going to be a solo, he needs some flunkies. While you’re not building the encounter, just building the guy, it still helps to know who he hangs out with.

He has some sycophants also out for money- Wererats. Gnome Politician with Wererat flunkies.

Skirmisher mechanics need to be distinct from wererats, but play well with them as well. If he’s wily, needs some tricking abilities. Start with big power that makes him “pop”: encounter power. One suggestion: he creates illusion of himself, gives immobilize plus combat advantage. Stops things from moving around, and helps wererats. Gives incentive to take out gnome first.

(At this point it was mentioned that the restrained condition is worth 4 dice of damage in monster design. I wonder if the rest of this formula will come out in a future DMG).

So the mechanics: the main power is done. He needs an at-will attack, and just look up in DMG for standard damage by level for skirmisher. Pick a weapon, which doesn’t have to match damage die.

Recharge is determined how often we want the power to be used (4-6 is every other round, 5-6 is every 3rd round). Avoid giving recharge to multiple monsters in an encounter. Also avoid giving a single monster multiple recharge powers. Otherwise, there’s a lot to track. Recharge rule tries to establish a rhythm with the monster. 

If possible, give both a melee basic attack and ranged basic attack. Otherwise, monster gets sequestered off to the side with nothing to do.

One example of an unfortunate monster: goblin with area burst attacks with recharges and one mace attack. Goblin fires off powers, then is mostly done. (And it was a solo).

A lot of lurkers have powers that recharge other powers. Lurkers have low damage lurking mode and higher damage out of lurker mode. Lots of ways to get creative with recharging powers without using recharge die rolls.

Gnome fires off illusion, sustain standard. While gnome isn’t attacking, wererats come in. Very oily politician thing to do: distract you while minions attack.

Alternative: forget sustained, make it an illusion that lasts until attacked. (Maybe it blows up when attacked). Gnome becomes visible when it’s attacked. Recharge when there’s no illusion.

The design took 20 minutes, and creates a villain that can be reused.

Tier-Long Villain

Descent Into Evil, PCs are going into enemy territory, facing against villain on his own terms, for the paragon tier.

Start with MO. Some suggestions: gathering sacrifices, vision of utopia in secret HQ, corruption of campaign NPC. Combined into one suggestion: villain is trying to create his utopia, needs campaign NPC, has to corrupt him via sacrifices.

Why does he want it: because he wants his utopia.

What does he look like: Fishy thing, like an Aboleth. Don’t have to start with an existing monster, could make a “sentient angler fish who lives in a bone palace surrounded by potato pod people”

What makes him unique: He’s surrounded by innocents that have been corrupted. Lures people down to his underwater domain. Has a lot of followers, the ones you will fight are the most zealous converts. Some people haven’t been fully transformed. PCs decide between the irredeemably converted and the ones that can be saved.

Tier villains have to be introduced early. A villain will show up for the battle at the end of Paragon, and signal change into epic. Has to be someone who lives in the PC’s mind. Introducing early and often is one of the best ways to make your players care about who they’re going to fight. Come up with 5 instances how they’re going to encounter the villain before they fight him.

One example: an empty village where the PCs see the consequences of not stopping the villain from his plot. Or an initial moment where cults are popping up. Add some instances where the villain doesn’t need to actually be there. In the coastal town example, you don’t know who is behind it, but it intersects with your current adventure. It’s a great chance for an “AHA” moment later.

On villain foreshadowing: the general inclination is to have villain show up, be unattackable, then leave. This can be very unsatisfying for PCs. Leave out direct confrontation until they can fight him. There are plenty of ways he can appear without being a combatant. The PCS can catch sight of villain as a fight starts. Give them the illusion of choice of going after the villain.

Another idea is to have a fight that can’t be won unless the players gain some more knowledge. This can be frustrtating too, since in 4e, most players expect to have a chance in every encounter, even if it needs tactics and luck. The key is if the players get frustrated, they won’t hate the villain because of what he’s done, they’ll hate him for the wrong reasons.

Always be prepared for your villain to die early. Also, if you’re going to show your villain, make sure to have a stat block for him in case he gets into a fight. 

It’s done a lot with deities, but can do it with lower level villains as well: give them an escape plan, just don’t turn it into the “Cobra Commander” where they always get away in the nick of time, cursing the heroes.

The tier-long villain should be more powerful an encounter, and  there should be multiple ways to victory. The first decision is to decide what his position is in the encounter.

In the case of the fish villain, maybe something that transforms when bloodied. Or could introduce two elites, one that comes in after the other is defeated.

Resist the temptation that every boss fight should be a solo. Like minions, use them sparingly when appropriate.

Campaign villain

Everything in the campaign ties back to him. Don’t reveal it early, but allow them to connect back. Give the players an “aha” moment when they realize he was behind it all. This can be tricky when introducing a villain over 30 levels.

When starting a new campaign, establish the scope of the campaign. Then take each tier and divide it into 2 bands. Figure out what you want to happen in each band, and the climax moments happen in between each band. Then slide in cool ideas after overall campaign structure. Decide what band the villain will be revealed. It’s good to have a villain that the PCs strive after.

Favorite villains are the incidental villains who happened to get away, and didn’t plan on them becoming regular villains. Anytime the players let somebody go, let him come back and hound the PCs. (The upsides and downsides of this were discussed later, about always killing monsters as opposed to letting them go).

Another good way to tie in the campaign villain is to have one of the other smaller scale villains join up with the main villain.

For the example of “destroying an artifact”, you can ask some questions like: does the villain become weaker when it’s destroyed? Does the artifact stop the villain, or is it just an important step?

Example from the audience: Necromancer chasing Hand and Eye of Vecna, PCs are racing the villain to it.

End villains: primoridals, princes of hell, demon lords, gods. Designed to be not fair. The PCs have to find some way to turn that encounter to able to be tackled. And not all have to be gods are similar to give an epic fight, like the movie version of Sauron that’s just a powerful wizard.

The final encounter is going to be this guy. The necromancer needs to intersect with the campaign. By the end of epic tier, most adventures involve facing this guy in some way.

Heroic Minions for the Necomancer:

• Necromancer has hired priest of Vecna.
• An Apprentice
• Wily Gnome
• Dragon

Allocate them based on power levels and how they’d appear. Also can construct a web of how they interact. The end-game villain shows up in the paragon tier, but is advancing.
Create wheels within wheels of campaign layers, since it’s over the course of a whole campaign.

All the previous ideas could be pulled together. “Descent into Evi”l could be the paragon tier, with the fish guy possessesing one of the artifacts. Could get an interesting three-way conflict with him and the campaign villain too.

It closed with some Q&A, talking about how to deal with players who kill absolutely everything, and some recommendations in putting in some antagonists for the party who aren’t necessarily evil.

Thanks to Rodney and Robert for the informative talk!

• Warforged Battlerager Fighter
• Goliath Barbarian
• Dragonborn Cleric
• Elven Avenger
• Dwarven Invoker

Characters were doled out and printed, and we arrived on Thursday night to attack the Ultimate Dungeon Delve. We talked teamwork, shared tips on speeding things up, decided who would do the fast addition for the arithmetically challenged, and interrogated the Dungeon Master before the clock was started. In short, we were nervous, but we were ready.

And we got our butts kicked. 

In the first encounter, a particularly annoying foe ran out the clock on us. The DM let us go a second time for fun, and while we beat the first encounter, we stone-walled against the regenerators in the second. We left that night, defeated, swearing that we would make it to the end before Origins was out.

This is that story. (Warning: spoilers ahead for “The Lunar Awakening” UDD, which will also be run at San-Diego Comic Con. It will be different than “Fall of the Tower at Windrock”, the GenCon and PAX UDD).

The Team

One thing was clear: we weren’t doing enough damage. Our divine-heavy team had sounded like a good idea for facing undead, but the simple fact was that it wasn’t enough of an edge to matter. Krog asked around, and found out that the first group who played had beaten it, and they used Leader – Striker – Striker – Striker – Defender. That’s what we settled on. I recruited my friend Sam whom I had spent a long time talking over 4e optimization and was at the con, who put together his ideal damage dealer. Geek’s Dream Girl recruited Graham via IM to help build her damage-dealing rogue. I kept the Beatdown Machine, my Battleraging Warforged Fighter, since I thought he had done really well in the first fight, but I also put together a Sorcerer for Krog’s brother Tophu to play as our fifth. We ended up using:

• Warforged Fighter (Beatdown Machine)
• Drow Rogue (Stabbie McRogue)
• Dragonborn Cleric (Nicholas)
• Dragonborn Sorcerer (Blort)
• Elven Ranger (Kevlas)

We also cheesed up by buying items to deal with the vunerabilities and damage types we knew we would face (I tried to feebly explain it by saying we had heard some rumors about what we would face in this town). After all that, we were ready, and tried again. We were given a new DM, who briefly explained the rules to our two new players, and the clock was hit for 45 minutes for the first fight.

Zombies to the left of me, jokers to the Wight

We emerged from a horrific scene in an inn to the streets, where undead were coming from all sides. One corner had some zombie minions headed for a crowd of people (and who we knew from last time would eat the villagers and make more zombies if we let them). Another alley held a Zombie Hulk and a Wight. Two Corruption Corpses stood on a roof bombarding us. And finally, a few rounds in the fight, an insubstantial Wraith barged in, then proceeded to hop around into buildings where we couldn’t follow, making it tough to pin it down to attack. 

Right away, we already knew we had a better group of characters than last time. The Dragonborn brothers took out the zombie minions using their dragonbreath and other powers, while the rest of us quickly dispatched of the Zombie Hulk. The Wight was toppled quickly as well (which was good because we knew it could bring back the Hulk). When the Wraith finally appeared, we were mostly freed up enough to concentrate on blowing the crap out of it. And did I mention that many of us had specifically taken stuff that dealt radiant damage and stuff that gave us necrotic resistance?

We chopped through the first encounter in a decent amount of time, but we knew that was only the first step. We had spotted a container of pitch during the fight, and were debating what to do with it. We knew from our metagaming that things would be coming up from the sewer, so did we just dump it down the sewer? Did we hoist it up on a roof to dump on them? Eventually, we decided to leave it be, and positioned the melee characters next to it, and the ranged characters up on the rooftops. Maybe you can guess what happened next…

The Wind-up, and the pitch

As expected, Werewolves, bats, and other creatures burst up from the sewer to attack. What we didn’t expect was them to immediately toss torches on the pitch and cause it to explode on us. Oops. 

Meta-gaming to the rescue on this combat as well, as several party members had purchased alchemical silver to coat their weapons with for use against the regenerating werewolves (which the first time around made the combat drag on). We also had some fun moments involving our ranged characters being stuck up on rooftops, and some “hot bat on bat action” between the Ranger beastmaster’s animal companion and some poisonous bats.

Also, I got bit by werewolves a lot, and totally diseased. But other than that, we did fine.

Into the garbage, shoot flyboy

We were warned by our DM that he was hearing this was the encounter where most teams were failing, and probably the hardest one. With a buildup like that, how could we resist? 

The next segment took place in the sewers, and in the middle was a floating platform. It was (quickly) described to us how a robed guy was chanting and standing over a large lump of refuse. Somehow, I as the fighter ended up going first, so of course I went to the platform (after walking through the sewer and getting sick), and started wailing on the spellcaster. Unfortunately, the trash creature (an Offalian) then woke up and grabbed me. Fortunately, Thundertusk Boarstrike to the rescue! The ranger (with a little help from Elven accuracy) sent the creature flying backwards, breaking its grip.

The fight became more complicated when several large skeletons emerged from the wall, and some minion zombies harassed our bank ranks of ranged characters (who already were having an issue due to the layout of the sewers) which lead us to see how this ended up being a very tough fight. The fighter, cleric, and rogue all started to mix it up in a mass in the center, and getting pushed around that disrupted our tactics.

At some point, the ranger and sorcerer realized that there was nothing the minions could do to them, since they dealt 5 necrotic damage and they both had resist 5 necrotic, which opened them to fire into the center to help us out. My fighter went toe to toe with the necromancer for a long time, taking heavy damage (and picking up yet another disease along the way), but the tide turned, and we emerged victorious with only moments to spare.

A bit of magic chainmail with a side order of axe

What sewer encounter would be complete with an Otyugh? As expected, we bumped into one on the way down the sewers. So what else was there for me to do but charge it? 

Unfortunately, sewers make for strange bedfellows, and soon I was set upon by a pair of rust monsters who found my magic chainmail delicious. I continued to do my defender duty and take them all on, but feared for my armor. I took my turn, and others started to go… when I realized I could send away my armor into an extradimensional space since it was a Summoned Armor. Before it rolled back around, however, the rust monsters ate the rusting armor, and left my AC much lower. (We also had to assure our DM that rust monsters didn’t do anything special against the Warforged).

Meanwhile, in the back, Stabbie McRogue crept her way up to help… and was possessed by a ghost coming out of the walls. Fortunately, when it wasn’t my turn, I looked up the rules to dominate and made sure that she couldn’t just unload her dailies on the Sorcerer. Still she managed to do some damage to the Sorcerer, who didn’t know what to do. We all focused on the Otyugh, then the rust monsters (before they ate anything else) and then were left with the problem of the possessed rogue (since Geek’s Dream Girl couldn’t roll a double digit saving throw). Heal checks were made and failed, and that darn ghost would not leave. Finally it popped out, and I took my readied swing against it… before it popped into someone else. I started to fear that we would run out of time before we finally banished it. Some more heal checks were made, and it failed to recharge its possession, so it tried making a few more potshots before we evaporated it… with plenty of time to spare.

I was worried that we wouldn’t have time to take a short rest because of how little time it had taken to beat the encounter, but actually, we got as many short rests as we wanted. Nobody took Enchant Magic Item, of course, so my poor armor was gone forever. Nicholas the Cleric stepped up and both cast Remove Disease on me to get rid of one of the nasty conditions, as well as offering me his chainmail. I took it so I could stay the valiant defender, which would come in handy.

These barghests are the pits

The sewers lead to an underground cavern, which stopped at a pit over which was suspended a rickety looking bridge. On the other side: barghests and snakes. Nothing could possibly ever go wrong with this scenario, right?

Well, my metal man dutifully charged across the bridge, fully expecting to have to make a check, or save, or somesuch, but I made it successfully across into the ranks of the bad guys and started to tear into them. Then came the complication: ghouls swung up from the pit on the otherside and cut the bridge. I was left alone against the bulk of the bad guys. On my next turn, I activated my Swordmage multiclass power (and switched my khopesh to one-handed) to get an AC boost while fending off the horde. I got some covering fire from the ranged characters on the other side, but thanks to some nasty snake poison, I still took a pretty major pounding. But then… Cape of the Mountebank! (It’s fun to say). I teleported back across the cavern to recover.

A barghest leapt after me, but was easier to handle with all of us together. The snakes just hid on the other side, until we came crashing back over using some athletics checks (which we were very fortunate not to botch) and Stabbie used her impulse-bought grappling hook to get across safely. We tore through them, and took our rest before the final encounter. A cryptic note was found on the scene, suggesting that our last fight would be against a dragon, and something involving “where shadow and death meet.” We puzzled over it for a bit while taking our short rest and spending healing surges. I was left with 3, and the valiant rogue was left with only 1. This could be bad.

Just me and my shadows

We emerged from the cavern to exit back into town, and were immediately set upon by a silver dragon, covered in dark energies. Next to him were two tiny shadow dragons, and they all got the drop on us. The shadow dragons flew by and caused some weakening among us, which would be a huge problem in dealing enough damage to a solo dragon in the time alotted. Then, of course, the dragon itself went and did the classic 4e routine of breath weapon-action point-dragon fear, causing some serious panic, and by the end dropping the rogue. She was brought back up by the Cleric, but was out of healing surges… if the combat dragged on, she would be down for the count.

I told everyone to focus on the shadow dragons, and we were able to take them down pretty quickly. As the DM described their bodies dropping, and said there was no change in the silver dragon, I whispered to Krog “roll a skill on your turn!” finally having a strong suspicion that there was a skill challenge in here. I did the same on my turn, but botched the roll (despite being my Swordmage multiclass giving my Arcana training). Others in the party did their thing to, examining the dragon bodies, putting together an antidote from them (because they were shadow and death meeting). The antidote was given to Stabbie, who made an awesome acrobatics check to flip up on the dragon and feed it to him.

The dragon still gnashed and wailed. What else had to be done? We asked some questions about the situation to the DM, who finally said that the dragon just probably needed to calm down, so several of us yelled in unison “diplomacy!” and that did it. The encounter was over, and we cheered!

The DM read the finishing text about the aftermath and teaming up with the dragon to set things right, and suggested a possible sequel (which might be the next UDD, or might be something else). Several other of the RPGA judges gathered around to congratulate us. It was a very satisfying feeling. (We were also told we were the first ones to do the skill challenge to cure the dragon instead of just kill it, and might have set a record time as a result).

Oh, and did I mention there was a prize? A free hardcover of our choice. I grabbed one of the adventures that I didn’t own, and everyone found something they wanted. 

And we’ll keep on fighting ’till the end

So what did I think of the Ultimate Dungeon Delve? It’s competitive, no roleplaying, only barest hint of a story, “hack and slay gathering” style D&D.  It’s something that could have been run in any edition of D&D and with many RPGs, but the combat system is robust enough to make it enjoyable. In short, if you like the combat in 4e, and can think quick, you’ll like Ultimate Dungeon Delve.

I had expected there to be more scenarios that rewarded keeping a balanced party (which is why we had the Invoker in the first try) like an all-minion encounter, but instead, they were all normal encounters with a variety of creature types. Most encounters had one part that was designed to make the encounter or the overall situation toughter: an insubstantial, phasing creature tough to attack in the first one, regenerating critters in the second, disease and sickness in the third, rust monsters in the fourth (that was really bitchy), a chasm in the fifth, and the last was a true boss-style fight. I felt it helped for us to have a few tricks up our sleeves and not  just optimize every single thing for damage and HP. Multiclassing was a nice way to handle this.

However, for all those other times, you want to be dealing as much damage as possible all the time. Defender – Striker – Striker – Striker – Leader is the way to go. Battlerager is almost too good to pass up in the defender role (to be survivable and deal loads of damage) but it could almost be swapped for another hardier striker as well. Having a fair amount of resistances helped a lot too, with the main ones for this scenario being necrotic and poison. 

The DM of the successful run did a great job keeping it running, but I also thought it was important for us to be communicative to him about how we were doing, what we were planning, and so on. It could be really easily to fall into an “Us vs. Them” attitude on both sides, but we both enjoyed it more and it ran smoothly because the DM wanted to have it be as fun as possible within the constraints of the scenario and challenge us as much as he could within those same rules.

At the same time, we ran into one of my bigger complaints with 4e in general, which is exascerbated by the time limit: it’s easy to unintentionally cheat. Even when using the Alea colored magnet markers to indicated statues, it was really easy to forget that we were weakened, or to remember to take a save, and so on. Even as an experienced DM during my regular games, I have trouble remembering to do everything for every monster, and so I can only imagine what it’s like under a time limit. There were lots of “go back in time” moments to remember to take ongoing damage and roll saves and such. (As GDG suggests for players, go for pure damage, since ongoing might not get remembered). 

That issue aside, it was a ton of fun, and drove us to near-obsessive levels in our quest to beat it. And any game that can cause that kind of reaction has really got something going for it.

Only a short Inquisition this week, since I have lots more Origins goodness to send your way soon, including an epic recounting of our journey to victory over the Ultimate Dungeon Delve, another seminar by Monte Cook (this one about designing dungeons), a seminar about 4e villain design, and my recap of the show’s exhibit hall, along with a few very short podcasts that describe some of the cooler games from the show floor.

Without further interruption, as suggested by our Ultimate Dungeon Delve teammate Krog, I ask the following:

Discuss your preferences as far as roles and the strengths and weaknesses, but if you want to bash the role system, might I recommend starting a thread on your favorite RPG forum?

I reported live from the 35th Annual Origins Awards via the Critical Hits twitter feed, but here’s the results, with all the nominees and winners:

Play By Mail

• Atlas Games Play by Post Forums by Atlas Games
• Heldenwelt by SSV Klapf-Bachler OEG. (Austria)
• Hyborian War by Reality Simulations Inc.
• Starweb by Flying Buffalo Inc.
• The One Ring Legends Module by Harlequin Games

WINNER: Hyborian War

Collectible Card Game Rules or Expansion

• Chaotic: M’arrillian Invasion Beyond the Doors Booster Pack 8
  TC Digital Games LLC
  MRN, To Be Continued LLC, Sam Murakami, and David Baumgartner
• Highlander the Card Game: Search for Vengeance 11
  HighlanderTGC
  Mike Sager
• Magic the Gathering: Shards of Alara 1
  Wizards of the Coast
  Bill Rose and Devin Low
• Portal
  Score Entertainment
  Aik Tongtharadol, Josh Morris, Dan Posey, and Carl Braun
• World of Warcraft the Trading Card Game: Servants of the Betrayer 2
  Upper Deck
  Mike Hummel, Antonio DeRosa, Ken Ho, Jeff Liu, and Patrick Sullivan

WINNER: Magic the Gathering: Shards of Alara 1

Children’s, Family, and Party Games

• Backseat Drawing
  Out of the Box Publishing
  Peggy Brown
• duck! duck! Go!
  APE Games
  Kevin G. Nunn
• Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen, The
  Mongoose Publishing
  James Wallis
• Living Labyrinth
  Bucephalus Games
  Julie Haehn
• Rorschach: The Inkbot Party Game
  Bucephalus Games
  Dan Tibbles, Jeremy Holcomb, Joe Huber, and Stephen McLaughlin
• Say Anything
  North Star Games
  Dominic Craphuchettes and Satish Pillalamarri

WINNER: Say Anything

Historical Miniature Figure or Line

• 28mm Imperial Romans
  WARLORD GAMES
• King Philips War 28MM
  Brigade Games Inc.
• SS-Panzerdivision ‘Das Reich’ Panzerkompanie (GEAB06) [15mm Line]
  Battlefront Games
• 28mm Celts
  WARLORD GAMES
• 15mm Ancient Saxons
  Splintered Light

WINNER: SS-Panzerdivision ‘Das Reich’ Panzerkompanie

Historical Miniature Figure Game Rules Supplement

• RISE OF ROME (Fields of Glory Supplement)
  Osprey Publishing
• Operation Cobra, The Normandy Breakout –FW206 Cobra FLAMES OF WAR
  Battlefront Games
• WWII Eastern Front Skirmish Scenarios
  Britton Publishers
• STARS AND STRIPES FOREVER
  Test of Battle Games
• AGE OF EAGLES: Napoleon Vs Europe  1813 – 14, AOE Scenario Book
  Quantum Printing

WINNER: Rise of Rome Fields of Glory

Historical Miniature Figure Game Rules

• Fields of Glory Miniature Rules
  Osprey Publishing / Slitherine Software
  Richard Bodley-Scott
• Volley & Bayonet: Road To Glory
  Test of Battle Games
  Frank Chadwick and Greg Novak
• Cold Steel and Canister
  Decker Game Company
  Jack Decker
• Song of Drums and Shakos
  Ganesha Games
  Andrea Sfiligoi
• Chevauchee: Rules for Battles with Medieval Miniatures
  Skirmisher Publishing LLC
  Michael J. Varhola, Robert “Mac” McLaughlin, and the Skirmisher Games Development Group

WINNER: TIE between Fields of Glory and Songs of Drums and Shakos

Historical Board Games

• Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear
  Academy Games
  Uwe Eickert
• Espana 1936
  DEVIR US LLC / Phalanx
  Antonio Catalain
• The Battle of Monmouth
  Clash of Arms Games
  Rich Kane
• The Campaigns of King David
  Clash of Arms Games
  Robert Markham
• Pursuit of Glory
  GMT Games
  Brad Stock and Brian Stock

WINNER: Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear

Non-Fiction

• KOBOLD Guide to Game Design, Vol. 1
  by Wolfgang Baur, Nicolas Logue
  Open Design
• Lost Leaves From the Inn of the Last Home
  by Margaret Weis
  Margaret Weis Productions
• No Quarter Magazine
  editor-in-chief Nathan Letsinger
  Privateer Press
• Things We Think About Games
  by Will Hindmarch & Jeff Tidball
  Gameplaywright Press
• Tour de Lovecraft: the Tale
  by Ken Hite
  Atomic Overmind Press

WINNER: Tour de Lovecraft: The Tale

Fiction

• Hungerblade
  by Robin D Laws
  Red Juggernaut Inc.
• Infernal Sorceress
  by Gary Gygax
  Paizo Publishing
• Killing Ground, The
  by Graham McNeill
  Black Library
• Pirate King, The
  by R.A. Salvatore
  Wizards of the Coast
• Worlds of Dungeons & Dragons Volume 2
  edited by James Lowder & Mike O’Sullivan
  Devil’s Due

WINNER: Worlds of Dungeons & Dragons Volume 2

Miniature Figure or Line of Miniature Figures

• Monsterpocalypse Collectible Miniature Game
  Privateer Press, Inc.
  Matt Wilson, Bryan Cutler, Jason Soles, Rob Stoddard, and Kevin Clark
• Star Wars Miniatures: The Clone Wars
  Wizards of the Coast
• WARMACHINE Steam-Powered Miniatures Combat
  Privateer Press, Inc.
  Matt Wilson, Ron Kruzie, and Chris Walton
• WH40K: Space Marines
  Games Workshop
• World of Warcraft Miniatures Game
  Upper Deck Company
  Justin Gary, David Baumgartner, John Fiorillo, Matt Hyra, and Anthony Shaheen

WINNER: Star Wars Miniatures: The Clone Wars

Miniature Figure Game Rules

• Classic Battletech: Tactical Operations
  Catalyst Game Labs
  Randall N. Bills and Herbert A Beas II
• Monsterpocalypse Collectible Miniature Game
  Privateer Press, Inc.
  Matt Wilson, Bryan Cutler, Jason Soles, Rob Stoddard, and Kevin Clark
• WARMACHINE: Legends
  Privateer Press, Inc.
  Matt Wilson, Jason Soles, and Rob Stoddard
• WH40K: 5th Edition
  Games Workshop
  Alessio Cavatore
• World of Warcraft Miniatures Game
  Upper Deck Company
  Justin Gary, David Baumgartner, John Fiorillo, Matt Hyra, and Anthony Shaheen

WINNER: Classic Battletech: Tactical Operations

Game Accessories

• Chibithulhu
  Steve Jackson Games
• Classic Battletech: Record Sheets 3039
  Catalyst Game Labs
  Randall N. Bills, Bjorn Schmidt, and David L. McCulloch
• D-Total
  Gamescience
  Dr. A. F. Simkin, Frank Dutrain, and Louis Zocchi
• Duel Decks: Jace vs Chandra
  Wizards of the Coast
  Erik Lauer and Ken Nagle
• Living Arcanis T-Shirt
  Paradigm Concepts, Inc
  Pedro Barrenechea, Henry Lopez, Nelson Rodriguez, and Eric Weiner
• Wicked Munchkin Bag & Die
  Q-Workshop
  John Kovalic and Patryk Strzelewicz

WINNER: D-Total

Role-Playing Game Supplements

• Buccaneers of Freeport
  Green Ronin Publishing
  Ari Marmell, Anthony Pryor, Rodney Thompson, and Robert Vaughn
• Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide
  Wizards of the Coast
  Bruce Cordell, Ed Greenwood, and Chris Sims
• Hero Lab
  Lone Wolf Development
  Rob Bowes and Colen McAlister
• Serenity Adventures
  Margaret Weis Productions
  Alana Abbot, Billy Aguiar, James Davenport, Ted Reed, and James M. Ward
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
  Wizards of the Coast
  Rodney Thompson, Sterling Hershey, John Jackson Miller, and Abel Pena

WINNER: Serenity Adventures

Role-Playing Games

• Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition Players Handbook
  Wizards of the Coast
  Rob Heinsoo, Andy Collins, and James Wyatt
• Mouseguard Role-Playing Game
  Archaia Studios Press
  Luke Crane and David Petersen
• Trail of Cthulhu, The
  Pelgrane Press Ltd
  Kenneth Hite, Robin D Laws, Jerome Huegenin, and Simon Rogers

WINNER: Mouseguard

Card Games

• Dominion
  Rio Grande Games
  Donald X Vaccarino
• Monty Python Fluxx
  Looney Labs
  Andrew Looney
• Red Dragon Inn 2
  Slugfest Games
  Geoff Bottone, Colleen Skadl, and Cliff Bohm
• Ticket to Ride Card Game
  Days of Wonder
  Alan R. Moon
• Trailer Park Wars
  Gut Bustin’ Games
  Lisa Steenson

WINNER: Dominion

Board Games

• Agricola
  Z-Man Games, Inc.
  Uwe Rosenberg
• Ninja vs. Ninja
  Out of the Box Publishing
  Tushar Gheewala
• Pandemic
  Z-Man Games, Inc.
  Matt Leacock
• TOMB
  Alderac Entertainment Group
  John Zinser
• Wealth of Nations
  TableStar Games
  Nico Carroll

WINNER: Pandemic

VANGUARD AWARD

WINNER: Flames of War Firestorm Campaign

Thanks to James Ernest for being a juggling host with nightmares, and to GAMA for running the event and providing an easily copy and paste-able list of nominees.