I was reading through Keep on the Shadowfell today in preparation for running it in a couple of weeks, and a thought occurred to me. 4e Dungeons & Dragons makes a big show about how the DM is really just another player who happens to have different duties. I won’t analyze that paradigm shift in this message, but it struck me that if that’s the case, perhaps the DM shouldn’t get to make all the decisions about why the players go on their adventures.

Follow me, here. Whenever you read an adventure, whether it’s in Dungeon magazine or one of the official adventures that comes out, there is always a section called Adventure Hooks. The one in Keep on the Shadowfell includes this:

Use one of the hooks below to set up the backstory for the adventurers, or create your own.

And then it goes on to provide three different hooks for the DM to choose from.

But you know, every group is different, and every party of characters is different. One of the most interesting emergent properties of a campaign is the unpredictable interactions between a unique set of characters. Part of the fun of that is watching players balance the motivations of their characters in different situations. Having the DM pick a hook takes away the opportunity for some of that emergence.

So, I think I’m going to try something when I run the module, I’m going to have all of the hook options available in Winterhaven, and the characters can come upon them through exploration. If they hit on one they like, they can go after it, if not then they can keep up the exploration and decide which one is most important to them.

Of course, I’ll have to adjust the awards a bit if they decide to go after more than one of the hooks, but that should be easy enough to do. It also ensures that different characters can find reasons to be satisfied with the adventure…sometimes you need gold, glory, and gods as adventure hooks.

In Parts One and Two I explored the mapping of the King’s Road. Now it’s time to move on to the next map used in the module, the Forest Lair. This map is divided into two parts, interior and exterior. The interior map will likely be made with Dwarven Forge, but the exterior map calls for more terrain-building hijinks, including learning how to do water and a waterfall. So, let’s get to work! Here’s the original map:

I started out by using the bendable carving tool to carve out the shape of a river. Unfortunately, I didn’t look at the Realistic Water tips before starting, so I made it too deep to use the stuff. Then I painted it a base gray to make it dark, sprayed it with glue, and laid down a bed of gravel (hint: kitty litter).

I wanted the river to have layers of color even though I wasn’t going to do much with the “water” itself, so I mixed some green paints and threw some moss onto the riverbed.

Since I’d cut the river so deep, I decided another solution was needed for the water. While browsing the hobby shop for options, I ran across some molded plastic textures, among them water. I chose the stormy water since this river was so close to a waterfall. It also helped me hide my inexperience by giving me an interesting visual that didn’t require a lot of work. So, I bought two sheets of it and traced the lines of the river to cut.

Finally, I needed to build up the fords before I locked the river in place. I got out the large fishtank rocks, which turned out to be the perfect color to contrast with the rest of the river, and built them up.

Finally I painted the area green, added flocking (which looks terrible this time around…I don’t like the technique, which created clumps and smears…it was a problem with the glue as well as the shaking), and stretched some polyfiber along the riverbed to mimic strands of moss. Finally, the two sections of water were locked into place by using an exacto knife to cut channels into the river walls. Here’s the “finished” product.

Next up I’ll be making the greenery, the summoning circle, and the pile of junk, as well as adding a cliff face and the waterfall. Whew, work’s just getting started on this piece!

One thing I’ve really enjoyed about the launch of 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons has been the resurgence in talk about game design across the community. Mike Mearls, Lead Developer on the new edition of D&D, is talking about opening up a website for open design (sound familiar? ), EN World, RPG.net, and Gleemax are all abuzz with talk of the new game. It’s even fired up fans of older editions to justify their continued existence.

On the Gamer Dome Wiki, work is being done to take the good parts of 4e and translate them into the language of 3e. Just earlier today, Brainygrrl Gamer posted a passel of cleric feats that emulate the 4e cleric’s power to heal in the midst of combat. No longer does the cleric have to choose between fighting, casting, and healing…now he can combine them to some extent.

Here’s her feat chain…feel free to make comments on it here, or to join up over at the Wiki and help development along at the source!

Conviction Feats for Clerics & Paladins

A character who takes conviction feats is able to convey his religious fervor to nearby allies through the passion in his voice. Whenever the character casts a divine spell of at least 1st level, allies within 5 feet who can hear him gain the listed benefit.

Religious Conviction [General]

Prerequisite: The ability to channel divine energy, Charisma 13+.
Benefit: Your prayer has the side-effect of providing +1 divine bonus to attack rolls for one round. Your allies may only gain the benefit of one Conviction feat per round.
Normal: Your spells only have their listed effect.

Healing Conviction [General]

Prerequisite: Religious Conviction.
Benefit: Your prayer has the side-effect of healing 1d4 hit points. Your allies may only gain the benefit of one Conviction feat per round.
Normal: Your spells only have their listed effect.

Inspiring Conviction [General]

Prerequisite: Religious Conviction.
Benefit: Your prayer has the side-effect of providing +2 divine bonus to all saves for one round. Your allies may only gain the benefit of one Conviction feat per round.
Normal: Your spells only have their listed effect.

Warding Conviction [General]

Prerequisite: Religious Conviction.
Benefit: Your prayer has the side-effect of providing +1 divine bonus to Armor Class for one round. Your allies may only gain the benefit of one Conviction feat per round.
Normal: Your spells only have their listed effect.

Greater Conviction [General]

Prerequisite: Religious Conviction.
Benefit: All allies within 10 feet can now gain the benefit of your Conviction feats.
Normal: Conviction feats only work on allies within 5 feet.

 In the first update in my series on creating 3D terrain for Keep on the Shadowfell, I talked about getting supplies and learning how to use the foam-cutting tools and materials. I made the base for the King’s Road, as well as the road itself. Now I’m ready to show off my first completed project. I’m still a novice, but I feel like for a first time it turned out pretty good, and I’m excited to use it in play!

These are the large rocks as well as the piles of boulders and other stones that are littered across the map. If you look closely you can see the three gravestones for the graves by the side of the road. I cut them, like all these rocks, out of spare bits of foam…this one in particular looked like a loaf of bread, and I just cut these three slices off of it!

We didn’t get an engraving tool in our first hot knife set, so I went to pick one up so I could texture the rocks. I learned a few techniques by trial and error, and I’m proud of some of how some of it looks.

Getting back to the road, I painted the entire surface tan and then made a green wash, which I dabbed on in a circular pattern with a painter’s cloth. Then after it dried I sprayed the green surface with glue and sprinkled on a liberal amount of dark green turf. The picture you see below is the unshaken version, before I shook off the excess turf to make it look more blended and natural.

Next, I added all the different terrain elements. The bushes are a technique I came up with…I made a “skeleton” out of Woodland Scenics green polyfiber which is what you see in this picture.

The rocks look pretty good, and I managed to shape the polyfiber to conform to the map’s foliage areas. I’m sure some of that foliage is supposed to be trees, but I’m not too worried about it here.

The next step was to carefully pick up the polyfiber bundles (I broke a paintstick in half and used it like chopsticks) and get them ready to apply foliage. I held each one up and sprayed a thin layer of glue onto one side. Then I set it down on a paper towel, grabbed two pinches, one each in dark and light green, of loose foliage foam, mixed them together, and applied them to the top and sides of the polyfiber skeleton. I let it dry a bit so it would maintain its shape and then picked it up and placed it back on the map. The large sections of foliage around the outcroppings had to be torn into several pieces and then reassembled. The finished bushes are fairly durable, and there was no need to glue them down, so now I’ve got a ton of ready-made bushes (as well as rocks, which also aren’t glued down) to use in other terrain projects!

Here’s the final version, with the map again for reference.

And finally some character’s-eye shots of the road.

A cleric and a ranger walking into an ambush of goblins led by a bugbear…but, who’s ambushing whom?

A dwarven cleric beseeching aid from the guardian of the road.

But, he was so busy supplicating he failed to see the airborne threat!

Next it’s on to the Forest Lair. The outside of that map is going to be done on its own base like King’s Road was, as I can reuse a river map over and over again. The inside will likely be setup with Dwarven Forge instead of carving it out of foam.

Hope you’re enjoying a look at the process of my learning to cut foam in order to make my first (and possibly only) 4e game memorable!

One of the sections over at The Gamer Dome Wiki that I’m most excited about is the collection of 4e D&D House Rules. Of course, it’s still pretty small because nobody is adding to it (hey, it’s a wiki, I can’t do all the work ). But, it does have a really cool house rule written by user Xagyg that I thought was worth spotlighting here!

Stored Rituals

Author: Xagyg
There are numerous examples in fantasy literature and media of using mundane items to store ritual magic, which can be unleashed at a later date. These rules attempt to emulate that for 4th Edition D&D.

Thanks to Klaus and Freedom Canadian over at Circvs Maximvs for helping develop this idea.

Note: I know that the rules allow you to write ritual scrolls, but they still take half the normal time to cast…anywhere from five minutes to four hours.

Storing a Ritual

Storing a ritual works the same as performing a ritual (PHB 298), including the ability for others to assist. It requires the same components and takes the same amount of time. At the end of the ritual, however, the ritual caster must expend a healing surge in order to lock the ritual into an item related to the ritual itself, known as a ritual object (a key for Knock, a desiccated tongue for Comprehend Languages, etc.).

A ritual will remain stored in the object for a number of days equal to the character’s Intelligence modifier (min. 1).

If a character has a stored ritual when he takes an extended rest, he recovers one fewer healing surge per stored ritual. For example, a wizard that normally had eight healing surges after each extended rest would only start with seven if he had stored a Detect Secret Doors ritual the previous day but had not used it yet.

A character can store a number of rituals equal to his Intelligence modifier (min. 1).

Using a Stored Ritual

It requires a standard action and the expenditure of another healing surge to use a stored ritual. The character must be holding the ritual object when he takes the action.

Releasing a Stored Ritual

A character can release a stored ritual at any time as a free action. He need not be holding the ritual object, and the ritual magic dissipates without effect. He does not immediately regain his healing surge, but can recover it with an extended rest or other ability that allows the recovery of a healing surge.

Optional Rule: Prior Knowledge

In order to store a ritual in an object, the ritual caster must have knowledge of the specific circumstance in which he will use the ritual.
So, he could store a Knock spell to the evil duke’s chambers, but only because he heard a rumor that it was magically locked and was able to interrogate a retired castle guard about what the door looked like. If he had not done the investigation, he wouldn’t have known enough to store the ritual for that door.

Or, he found out that the last three adventurers to delve into the Caves of Chaos all came back with the dread Burning Plague, so he could store a Cure Disease ritual in a piece of fruit that would help protect his comrades when they attempt the delve the following day.

That kind of quality work is exciting, even though I’m quite focused on the 4e to 3e Conversion project.

Do you have any house rules that should go on the Wiki? Well, swing by and start posting! This has the potential to grow into something big, but not without your help!

Propagandroid is away from the internet tonight, and I know he’d want to share this news with everyone.

You can find the Game System License for Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition here: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=d20/welcome

Here’s a link to the 4e System Reference Document as well.

I’m sure Prop will have a great deal to say about this, but for now, go read that link!

So, apparently you guys and gals like your 4e tools! My previous post has been successful at spreading some tools around, but there have been some more over the past few days. Here are some more tools for you DMs and players out there.

First, how about a look at the Official tools for 4e: D&D Insider.

Haha, sorry, I couldn’t resist.

Next, a couple from Chatty DM:

Asmor’s Random 4e Encounter Generator: This baby is pretty awesome for random encounters, or just generating ideas. If you put your party’s info in there and just hit submit a few times, you’re sure to come up with some wacky encounter you never would have thought of. It’s quite customizable…maybe 4e encounters are as easy as they said!

Asmor’s 4e Monster Math Cruncher: Monster creation made easy! You just tell it the monster’s level, role, and whether it’s special (elite or solo) and it gives you all the numbers you need to run the monster! Of course, you’ll still need to assign it special powers, but the cruncher does tell you how much damage they should do based on their frequency of use. Keep an eye on this one, I can see it developing further!

Asmor, by the way, also writes the Encounter-A-Day blog that is filled with all sorts of tasty goodness.

ChattyDM keeps a great blog, and in this post he’s tracking user-submitted 4e tools!

Thread on the WotC forums with many links: I’m seeing character sheets (PDF and Excel), power cards, The Gamer Dome , powers sheets, and more.

Temporary Update (6/26/08): EN World is back up! The links have all been changed.

Update: Fixed the link to the Initiative and Effects Tracker. Also, Jim over at Dragon Avenue has compiled all of these files onto his site, so you can download them all without going to kingdom come. Way to go Jim!

I’ve run across some really great accessories and play aids for 4e D&D during my internet journeys and I figured, “I’ve got a blog, why not share them with my readers?” Revolutionary thinking, I know. I’ve already used some of these in games, and I especially enjoyed the crib sheet, which really helps new players (all of us!) figure out what they can do on their turn.

Power Cards - Complete Set: These things are swwww-eet. They’re pretty, and functional, and cover every PC power in the 4e PHB! Megaprops to Ander00 over at EN World for these. EN World post | PDF version

Kiznit’s 4e Character Sheet: It’s pretty good now, but I’d keep checking back as he’s going to add a third page with blank power cards. Of course, you won’t need those if you keep reading. Direct Link (several pdf version links in the post)

Kiznit’s 4e Combat Crib Sheet: This sheet breaks down the most common Standard, Move, and Minor actions, and tells you which ones you can use each turn in Chinese menu format. It also covers general modifiers, action points, some conditions, critical hits, and special actions. This is a must-use sheet for any beginning 4e game. Direct Link (PDF) | EN World thread

Shado’s 4e Character Sheet: This sheet is color and, better yet, landscape. EN World post with link to zip

Initiative and Effects Tracker: This sheet lets you track initiative and ongoing effects on PCs, it’s pretty nifty! The original link is broken, so I put it up at The Gamer Dome wiki! Direct Link

Even more fan-created power cards: Here’s a site that has several different designs, and power cards broken down by class. Direct Link | EN World thread | Technical info thread
Monster Cards?

I’ve been reading 4e just like everyone, but probably going much slower. I’m still not out of the PHB yet, to be honest. But, I’ve also been reading the 1e core books recently, and I’ve still got a vested interest in 3.x despite its many flaws. I know that my gaming group is probably not going to embrace 4e, and truthfully I’m not sure I have the attention or energy to really learn the game right now. What I am interested in is dissecting all the work that WotC R&D did on the game and gleaning what I can from their design choices.

To that effect, I’ve started a new project on The Gamer Dome Wiki called 4e to 3e Conversion, where I’m taking some of the innovations and changes in 4e and imagining,

“What if WotC had just fixed 3e?”

Here are a couple of my first stabs:
Cleave
Prerequisites: Str 13, Power Attack
Benefits: Whenever you make a successful strike, deal your Str modifier in damage to an opponent adjacent to your original target.

Wizard

Cantrips
- All cantrips (0-level spells) can be cast at will.

At-Will Spells
-When a wizard gains the ability to cast a new level of spells (at 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 11th, 13th, 15th, and 17th level), he may choose one spell of at least two levels lower than his maximum to cast at-will. At 3rd level, the wizard may choose a 1st-level spell even though it is not at least two levels lower. He no longer needs to prepare that spell, and may cast it an unlimited number of times per day. An at-will spell is cast at the minimum possible level. He may still prepare the spell and cast it at normal caster level if he chooses.

At 10th level, at-will spells are cast at minimum+2 level.

For example, a 3rd-level wizard chooses magic missile as an at-will ability. At 9th level, his at-will magic missile still only deals 1d4+1 damage, but if he prepares the spell it will deal its normal 5d4+5 damage.

Since I didn’t pick up Keep on the Shadowfell right away, intending to use it as a campaign starter once my books arrive and we’re ready to try 4e, I have some time to prepare for the game. One way I’m doing so is by linking my new hobby of terrain building with the module, so I’ve set out to recreate the battlemaps used in the module as 3D terrain. This is the first in a series of posts in which I’ll chronicle both the ins and outs of learning how to make terrain as well as my 3D models of Shadowfell’s encounter locations.

In the Beginning, There Was a Terrain Noob
It took about a week and $500 to get all the stuff I conceived of needing to get started building terrain. Luckily Mrs. Prop is an artist and so she knows about equipment and techniques, and is passing along her knowledge (as well as building her own terrain). She’s also been perusing some forums and getting books on model terrain building to help out. As usual, she’s the brains of the operation.

The first map I found out about also happens to be the first map used in the module, which is convenient so that I don’t have to have everything finished by the time we start playing. It is called King’s Road, and looks like this.

The first thing to do was build a workshop out in my garage and assemble the pieces necessary to build the map. I didn’t take a photograph of my workshop, but here’s my first step.

I cut a piece of foam to the exact dimensions of the map, minus the grid markers. Then I precisely measured and drew outlines for all of the elements of the map. (Alert! Noob mistake! How was I going to use those outlines once I’d painted a base coat on the thing? Of course, maybe painting the base coat so early in the process was the real mistake.)

I wondered how I was going to mark the road…I sorta wanted to do something other than just put down dirt flocking. Mrs. Prop suggested we use some 1/2 foam core to raise the road a bit, because I’d wanted it raised. I thought this was a good idea, so I cut out a model.

It looked silly just sitting on the map, though, so we rolled up some modeling clay, strung it along the sides of the road, then flattened it. I think we used too much clay, but live and learn. The road extends out an extra inch in all directions which squeezes the rest of the map a bit. I’m just going to build on top of it.

Next time in Mapping Shadowfell: Part Two, I’ll talk about making and painting the various board elements, and the road. Until then, if you have any terrain-making tips, feel free to share them!