Okay, a lot of people on roleplayers have been reminiscing in threads like these as the last of the Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 books have been written and the brand new 4th Edition becomes available in stores tomorrow. I realize my fascination with role playing has been a frustrating and intriguing one, probably not only for myself but people around me as well. I think part of it extends from the idea that despite the exponential advances in technology and video games over my lifetime, tabletop gaming still possesses the potential to be the pinnacle of interactivity. When I was a kid, playing games like the original Final Fantasy really captured my imagination but I would get frustrated because talking to NPCs was entirely one-sided and had zero room for additional information or clarification. I think another aspect that drew me into the game was that with the release of additional books as time went by, Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 slowly developed into a "research fight" if there ever was such a thing, mixing and matching thousands of feats, spells, and classes amongst the books to find new combinations. So here was this fun, creative activity that, intentionally or not, catered to my skills and interests. This isn't to say that 3.5 was a game without flaws. Many problems were due to one of two facts. The first was that some things scaled and improved as the characters level up while others did not, and the second was that the game spends a great deal of energy and rules trying to represent the limitations of reality in a world with magic spells and sentient killer underwear that makes you serve its bidding. I'm still optimistic about this new edition because I began to notice a clear difference in 3.5 Edition between the release of the original books and the newer material. The designers appeared to gain a better understanding of what made for a fun game rather than what gave the most realistic representation. And hey, that's what we're here to do.

Snatched from Liz.

85% Chris Dodd
84% John Edwards
84% Barack Obama
81% Hillary Clinton
80% Mike Gravel
80% Joe Biden
80% Bill Richardson
77% Dennis Kucinich
37% Rudy Giuliani
32% Tom Tancredo
30% John McCain
28% Mike Huckabee
25% Mitt Romney
24% Ron Paul
18% Fred Thompson

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz

This restores my faith in Obama a little. After being a fan of him when he first emerged but feeling really leery when he announced his run for president, I started realizing that he didn't say a whole lot besides "Let's play nice". I guess our issues are relatively compatible. Although I find it funny if not weird how all the Democrats are that much more compatible with me than any Republicans. Not that I can imagine any of the major Republicans agreeing with me. I got Chris Dodd as my top match on two test now. I should totally send him a wink.

I looked at Races and Classes, the official D&D 4E preview, in the store today. As I knew, it's all fluff about why we're adding races and their cultures and why everything is supposedly perfect now (yeah right). It's a really minor detail, but since it took up a significant part of one page I figure it's worth stating: Tiefling weapons look really stupid. Human weapons look utilitarian, Dwarf weapons exude weight, power, and fine craftsmanship, Elf weapons look eloquent and pretty, but Tiefling weapons look like those really impractical "fantasy" knives they sell at martial arts stores or anywhere they sells old-school weaponry in this day and age. Like, even a utility knife as eleven different points on it, and everything has to exude DARKNESS^tm. Sean and Kim alone will probably make me rue their very existence...

Ever hear a song that goes HEEEEEEEEEEEEY EEEEEEEEE YAAAAAAAAAY? I tried googling that and had very little success. I learned though that song is called Touched by VAST. Also dammit iTunes, I'm never going to buy a Fine Frenzy song unless you give it to me for free again. Fortunately, I heard Love Song by Sarah Bareilles on PST and now I love it.

This picture made my day:


This interview with a Tiefling and a Gnome on the other hand just saddened me. Red Dranei Tiefling are a playable race and Gnomes are not. Especially these new gnomes who look like they're going to eat my baby. Also, way too much modern slang like "Sic" and "Hella for my liking here. I guess Wizards hit a major conflict, gnomes are in World of Warcraft but not Exalted so what do they do?

In case you're playing at home, this is where I get my info from.

Probably going to post some random thoughts about fantasy in general in the near future.

Wizards of the Coast is releasing this book of incomplete thoughts for the low price of $25 despite the fact you can probably find most of this material on the web for free. To help promote this fabulous piece of work, I will give you a small excerpt from the book:

"In 4E [Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition], we've really had to challenge ourselves to find new ways to make fighters suck. After all, with all the glorifcation of swordplay in television, film, literature, and video games, it's becoming increasingly difficult to justify how a person who dedicates his or her life to combat should be no match in a straight fight to a thief who uses subterfuge to avoid combat, the local parishner, and now in 4E, schoolchildren.

Our first idea was to remove weapons altogether, but this would punish other classes like rogues and paladins as well. Our next plan was to explain that every fighter has a scabbard that's HUGE compared to his weapon and requires a DC 30 search check just to find it in there at the start of each battle. Our final idea was to give fighters "Non-breathing", which would be mechanically similar to "Illiteracy" for Barbarians, except that it would require four points to remedy and, like all the skills in 4E for fighters, be cross-class. This would nip the problem at the bud by suffocating all fighters to death before the game begins. Unfortunately, this still leaves multi-class fighters, but we are assured this issue will be resolved before release.

In lieu of being a fighter, you should be a Warlock. They're totally worthy of being one of the PHB base classes and not expansion fodder. We love them, and so do you. You loved them before they existed, we just stole your memories of that fact, like that guy on Heroes can.

We also now partake in pop culture references that absolutely will not feel stale in 18 months. See Complete Scoundrel and its sequel, Complete Pop Culture References in a Fantasy Setting.

...

PLEASE DON'T LEAVE US FOR EXALTED! WE'RE BEGGING YOU!!!"

Will, was this the D&D 4.0 article you found the other day?

Today was a good day, if only for the fact that it wasn't house crap ==> laptop ==> dinner ==> Monster Hunter like the past four or so days. Got out and saw Will, and kind of said some stuff I've been thinking about for a while which was good.

Ever hear something so wrong you had to think it over for, like, half an hour just to sort out its wrongness? I had one of those today, and it got me to thinking about this Japanese poem.

( Yes, my mind is really just bouncing around from place to place today. )

Saw I Think I Love My Wife tonight. Never Trust a Trailer. The "finger-lickin" commercials made me think it was a No Exit comedy based off some of Chris Rock's more recent stand-up but it was actually quite dark and hard to tell whether it was a comedy or not. Nearly every funny scene is in the ads, and the only one that isn't is because they totally couldn't put it in an ad. Also, I found it funny that the hoebag in it was played by the woman who played Alicia Masters in the Fantastic Four movies.

Will found some stuff regarding D&D Version 4.0. I found a link for it! Sorry, couldn't resist. Eladrin just might be the new Drow. Rumors are they'll be as much a player race as much as Humans and Dwarves. Elves are going to be recast as the "archers in trees" race, and Eladrin will be the "eloquent magical" race. My favorite rumor is that multiple skills that you often took together will be streamlined into one skill. Like Hide + Move Silently --> Stealth.

Monster Hunter story of the day: I fought the Daimyo Hermitaur for the first time. It's a giant enemy crab with a triceratops skull for a shell. First, I couldn't find him for like fifteen minutes because he was in the one place I didn't think to look (Area 9). Once we begin battling it's an interesting battle: he had the advantage on flat ground plus I can get tired in the desert heat, but with a longbow, any place with cliffs is my house. The battle went back and forth for half an hour. At my low points, I had to run from battle and start cooking whatever was around to restore my stamina. With one life and less than a minute left, I won the battle.