What "is" D&D?

I've been out of the RPG circuit for a long time. I made a half-assed attempt at running a one-shot 3.5 game back in 2006, but that doesn't really count. The last time I seriously ran a game, or played in one, was probably back in 1999, so it's been awhile. As I've been preparing notes on my new campaign, drawing maps, painting miniatures, creating NPCs, and doing general research on things that I deem relevant to my game (such as how ore was actually processed once mined back in the medieval age), I've also started to take a look at all the D&D sites out there, as well as troll the Wizards of the Coast forums.

This has given me a lot of insight into the many different styles of play when it comes to Dungeons & Dragons, and what the game means to different people. As I've been doing all of this, and reading the new players handbook, etc., a few things struck me. There seems to be a major emphasis on encounters and hack-and-slash as opposed to roleplay and genuine character development. Maybe this is me idealizing the past, and maybe I'm dead wrong about this, but a lot of what I've been finding online is more about encounters, combat, and tactical play, rather than creating a good story and weaving a little magic into the lives of friends once a week.

This could be totally unfair - and granted, my sample size is pretty damn small, but to me, D&D was all about storytelling and imagination. Sure, combat was there, and it was almost a given that there would be at least one combat encounter per game session back when I was both a player and a DM, but the very emphases placed on miniatures and battle maps makes me a little wary - it almost feels like Hero Quest instead of a role playing game.

Of course, it's up to the DM, not Wizards of the Coast, to create the kind of campaign he wants. But part of me wonders if the mindset of the player base has changed over the past decade or so, and if the influence of MMOs like World of Warcraft and Everquest are adulterating the game that I grew up on in ways that make me uncomfortable. Again, this isn't that big a deal in theory. After all, your game sessions consist of you and your friends, and you can do whatever you want, but I can't help but feel like there's been a kind of cultural shift. Perhaps this is just me showing my age.

I suppose the reason I'm so contemplative about this is that my very first session is this Friday, and I don't know what to expect from my players. I'm hoping their attitude won't be "yadda, yadda, whatever, just get us to the dungeon, already." And if it is, then it's my job to pull them in and make them care about the world, the NPCs, and their characters. It's my job to make them look down at their character sheets and see more than rows of numbers and plus signs. I'm not sure if I'll be successful, but I'm going to do my damnedest.

Any advice?

Gobbos Pt. 3

And there you have it. And it's not even 3am! Not much more to say, but you can see the techniques here that I alluded to in my previous post. The goblins are fully inked, and following that, I highlighted the raised edges of their leather armor, and used a lighter golden metallic to touch up the edges of the few scraps of plate armor some of them are wearing. Oddly, one of the more time consuming parts of these figures are the cobblestone bases, because I use one dark blueish/gray color as a base coat, and then highlight the edges of the individual stones with a slightly lighter gray, and then just lightly graze those same edges with an even lighter gray - one that's almost white. It takes a little extra time, but it's these small details that really stand out, especially from a good three feet away from the table.

There are actually two more goblins left to do, but I left them out of this batch because they're rather unique - one is a mage with a staff, crystal ball, and complicated backpack, and the other is some sort of robe-wearing priest gobbo with a mace and shield. Both miniatures are different enough from this seven man running crew that I decided to do them individually, and later.

Alright, this was a very productive day. We'll leave it here for now. Time to get horizontal.

Gobbos Pt. 2

I've been banging away on these little bastards, and I figured I'd use this as an opportunity to show how I paint when I have multiple miniatures to do at once, such as a squad of marines (if we're talking 40k, for example), or in this case, a bunch of stinky lil' gobbos.

The first thing I do is put a base coat of paint on the model, which results in a colored, if flat, mini. The image in my most recent post is a good example of the base coating process. Base coating is my least favorite part of painting because it's a fair amount of work, and leaves relatively uninspired results. The real fun comes after.

When the base coat is finished, it's time to break out the inks. I swear by the new line of Games Workshop inks - they're vastly superior to any other ink I've used for miniatures, and they provide a wonderful sense of shadow and depth, and are my favorite part of painting miniatures. Why? Because inking takes practically no time at all, and the results it produces can be truly awe-inspiring. For a taste, compare the image above with the image in my most recent post. In this image, I've applied a deep green ink wash to the flesh of all of the goblins. The ink runs into the recesses of the model effortlessly, and provides a wonderful sense of depth.

The next step is going to be applying an ink wash to all of the leather armor, and a black or rust wash to the silver metallics, to give an aged and weathered look to the metals. After all the washes are applied, then it'll be time to highlight. This part is simple and only slightly more work than ink washes (in most cases). You find your base coat, and then highlight the very raised edges of the model with a color one or two steps lighter in the color spectrum (most of the time this can be achieved by merely adding a little white to the basecoat color). Highlighting, in combination with inking, provides three levels of depth that can really make a model come alive.

I'll post pics of the finished gobbo horde when they're ready.

Miniature Madness

So... when I get started on a project that I'm passionate about, I get obsessive. Since I haven't run a D&D campaign in over a decade, I really want to do things right - I want to blow my players away, and make sure that everyone has as good a time as I can possibly give them. Since I'm using miniatures, this means using good, pewter miniatures of the Reaper line instead of the awful, plastic, pre-painted ones that Wizards of the Coast produces. The upshot of this is that I'll end up with a ton of fantastic miniatures I can use in future campaigns or games (sort of like an investment in my D&D future). The downside is it's a decent chunk of change, and a lot of work up front.

Since my players are all going to be starting off at first level, most of their encounters will involve typical D&D yard trash, such as kobolds, goblins, orcs, hobgoblins, gnolls, spiders, etc. To drive this point home, in the past two weeks I've painted 21 kobolds, 2 fire beetles, 2 giant bats, 2 giant spiders, 3 dire wolves, 4 men at arms, and I'm currently working on 9 goblins (pictured above). I also have to move at a pretty brisk pace, because I stagger my miniature orders out weekly at my local game store. What this means is that this Thursday I'll have miniatures for about 9 orcs, a couple NPCs, a few bandits, and some town guardsmen coming in.

The good news is that once I finish the yard trash minis, and start focusing my attention on more exotic creatures that the players will encounter (you know, beholder-esque stuff), the number of miniatures I'll have to paint will go down, and the fun will go up. I'm really looking forward to getting the opportunity to paint some ogres, or trolls, or elementals, etc.

Is all this necessary for a good D&D game? Not even close. But I really think it'll add to the experience. If nothing else, it's a chance to rapidly improve my painting skill!

Easy Props

Hey all - I just wanted to share a quick prop trick with all you budding dungeon masters out there. Now, I can't claim credit for this trick, but it's really effective and worth showcasing.

First, take a nice thick piece of paper (I used 120 pound stock), and with your miniature paintbrush and some black ink, paint a crude map of the starting area in your campaign world. It doesn't have to be a masterpiece - in fact, I made my map slightly inaccurate, but with enough of the major landmarks that really exist in my game world that it gives my players a rough idea of their surroundings and options as far as travel is concerned. I tried to make it look as if it was created perhaps by another traveler and found by one of the players. The map has a casual, unpolished air to it, with markings such as "settlements this way?" and is deliberately unprofessional.

The final, and easiest step, is also the most important. In order to give it that weathered, yellow parchment look, simply soak it in diluted coffee and let it dry. Bingo - instant map on parchment that looks pretty damn good and will thrill your players. It takes a little work, but man, the effect is phenomenal!

4e...

So. Miniatures. That more or less sums up fourth edition Dungeons and Dragons. Well, that, and World of Warcraft.

I admit, the WoW comparison is a cliche', but a valid one. D&D is the same in a lot of ways, but different in enough that it makes someone like myself who cut his teeth on second edition AD&D be taken aback. The biggest change in that regard is lethality. The AD&D I remembered could get pretty brutal, and character deaths weren't unheard of. Now, players get a specific number of "healing surges" per day, which allow them to pull hit points out of thin air. They're typically allowed one heal in combat, and as many as they want out of combat. Each day, their number of healing surges replenishes, meaning that your party could take a six hour nap inside a level of a dungeon you just cleared, and then they'd have a fresh batch of healing surges that they could use when they descend to the next level. Of course, for a creative DM this isn't a problem. The rules specify a night of uninterrupted sleep, so it'd be easy enough to make it impossible to get a good night's sleep in a dungeon, or other dangerous place, but still, the philosophy behind healing surges are clear.

The biggest, and probably most annoying aspect of 4th edition, though, is its insistence on miniatures. 4e more or less demands that you use miniatures in your game. All the powers refer to "squares" instead of "feet" when determining range, and the combat section of the Players Handbook is filled with diagrams of miniature combat. Back in the day, sometimes I used miniatures (or M&Ms, or a whiteboard, etc.) for very complicated encounters, or for situations where it was critical that everyone knew where everything was, but the vast majority of the time, we as players just... gasp... used our imaginations! I know, right? What a novel concept!

To be fair, miniatures are fine, but what annoys me is that I know the only reason Wizards of the Coast are doing this is to push their own line of crappy, plastic, pre-painted miniatures. These minis suck. Not only are they crap, but you can't even buy specific miniatures that you want -- they come in "booster packs" as if they were freakin' Magic cards. So say I wanted ten kobolds... this would require me purchasing a number of "booster packs" of a specific series of D&D miniatures (that may or may not still be "in print") and hoping that I got what I wanted. And if I was lucky, then I'd have a lame, plastic, pre-painted mini.

In response, I've compromised my principles half-way. I'm going to be using miniatures in my campaign, and probably a combination of D&D dungeon tiles, and a wet-erase battle mat - but the catch here is that I'm only going to be using quality pewter Reaper miniatures that I'll assemble and paint myself. It's a lot of extra work, but range and quality of the Reaper minis are amazing, and even though I won't win a Golden Deamon with my painting skills, I'm decent enough with a paintbrush that I can produce figures that look pretty damn good at arms length. The kobold pictured above is one out of twenty-one kobolds I've painted specifically for my campaign.

I've also decided to reject Wizards' insistence that dungeon tiles be used to map out the entirety of the dungeon -- and I'll only be plopping down relevant dungeon tiles when the party bumps into an encounter. Here's to using one's imagination.

Oh, and my campaign's lethality factor will not be compromised.

First Things First

Hey everyone --

If it wasn't abundantly clear by the header image, this blog is a delve into the dork, as it were - and more specifically, about all things D&D. A little bit about myself might be in order: I'm 28, from the northeastern United States, and when I was a teenager I used to roleplay a lot. I played in games, ran games, and pretty much had a blast nerding out.

For most of my 20s I've ignored the hobby for one reason or another. The people I used to play with drifted apart, and I had several other things going on to occupy my time (college, girls, and alcohol to name a few).

Recently I've started to rekindle my geek roots, and after not having run a proper game in almost exactly a decade, some friends of mine have talked me into starting a D&D campaign at my local game store. Now, I haven't played D&D since second edition, so imagine my surprise once I started reading up on 4e! I'm open minded though, so what the hell.

Apparently, miniatures are important now... but the pre-painted ones that Wizards of the Coast puts out completely and utterly suck. Looks like I'll have to order some Reapers.