Critical Failure: WotC Employed Toxic Harassers As Consultants On New D&D

Last week, I cast a spotlight on the newest edition of Dungeons & Dragons and praised the Player's Handbook for taking the bold step to have inclusive language on gender and orientation right in the handbook. I heralded it as a great step forward and said "Kudos to WotC."

I take it all back.



The blog Fail Forward details how beneath the positive press for its inclusive language, the latest edition of D&D also counts among it consultants two men that have a long history of engaging in harassment, homophobic and transphobic behavior: RPGPundit and Zak S.

Seeing their names there in black and white was just too much, and people began to speak out. Most did so in private, others posted publicly but without naming names. This, I became aware, was because anyone who criticized the pair found themselves subjected to harassment, abuse and real world stalking... This is where Zak excels. He has in the past posted lists of people who he feels have displeased him in some way, complete with their real names. Those people then lists find themselves subjected to sustained campaigns of harassment.
...
While this behavior is alarming, it the choice of victim that is the most telling. These attacks nearly always target women and LGTBQ individuals, mostly freelancers and independent designers. Zak and Pundit have taken pains to defend themselves against accusations of transphobia, but I know several trans people who their fans have attacked and harassed. Zak described one of them as ‘mentally ill’, both he and Pundit told others they would be better off committing suicide. Recently, in a post defending Zak and accusing his detractors of misogyny, his girlfriend attempted to out a trans designer.

The anonymous tumblr Problematic Tabletop started cataloging some of their more public behavior. Fresh waves of hate mail forced designers to delete and hide social media accounts to escape. At the same time Zak put his setting book on sale, using promotional quotes consisting of people calling out his behaviour. This was not unusual, Zak’s business model revolves around publicly being a jerk. He is, quite literally, a career bully. 

Eventually, Mike Mearls, the lead designer of the newest edition of D&D, asked for people to come to him privately with any stories of harassment on the part of Zak S. and the RPGPundit had engaged in. Days later, Mike Mearls said that he considered of the claims didn't matter, because he couldn't find any evidence of either man using explicit slurs, so the matter was closed as far as he was concerned.

 Meanwhile, Zak was publicly speaking on Mearls’ behalf, saying that WOTC had found the claims against him to be baseless. Those who sent Mearls information began to panic, had he just shared their complaints with their harasser? Mearls responded that he had told Zak the claims were baseless, but hadn’t shared any names or details with him. Nevertheless they were not pleased, nor did they feel safe. Why had Mearls consulted with Zak before replying to them? Why was it more important to re-assure Zak he was in the clear than respond to allegations of harassment? Mearls again replied, saying that he was not taking the accusations seriously because some of the people stating them were members of the Something Awful forums... Meanwhile, The RPG Site, operated by someone Mearls hired as a consultant, currently contains such topics as: “Bruce Baugh can go fuck himself with a rusty spoon”, “Why I dislike feminism” and a thread defending the use of the word ‘Jap’ in WW2 settings...  

In investigating this story I heard the same tales over and over again. The RPG community is small enough that almost every woman, person of colour or LGTBQ individual seems to have had a run in with Zak or Pundit. The only reason I hadn’t heard about this before is because they are too afraid to speak out. Discussions happen in private, or with the names left out, because both Zak and Pundit are infamous for googling their own names and attacking their critics. Zak even now tries to portray these allegations as prudish conservatives out to smear him due to his involvement in pornography. Yet for that to be true almost every marginalised voice in the RPG community would need to be part of a secret right wing conspiracy. At a certain point you have to accept that that is implausible.

WotC has not made a public statement on the matter. All communication has been through private emails and a now-deleted G+ discussion. It's been nearly a month since this brought to light. WotC has been content to soak up praise and admiration for using inclusive language, but wants to dodge responsibility for using two poisonous people as consultants for that same new edition of D&D.

You don't get to have it both ways. Inclusive language has to accompany inclusive behavior-- otherwise, you're doing nothing but paying lip service with empty words.

Shape up, WotC.

Dungeons & Dragons Has Influenced A Generation of Writers & How It Helps Kids Today

Artwork courtesy of James Howe.

From a recent New York Times article:

For a new generation of writers, especially those raised in the 1970s and ’80s, all that time spent in basements has paid off. Dungeons and Dragons helped jump-start their creative lives. 

When he was an immigrant boy growing up in New Jersey, the writer Junot Díaz said he felt marginalized. But that feeling was dispelled somewhat in 1981 when he was in sixth grade. He and his buddies, adventuring pals with roots in distant realms — Egypt, Ireland, Cuba and the Dominican Republic — became “totally sucked in,” he said, by a “completely radical concept: role-playing,” in the form of Dungeons & Dragons.

When you think about it, it's not really too surprising. Speaking personally, while D&D offered an escape from an abusive home life, coming up with character back-stories that fit within an adventuring party was my first taste of collaborative storytelling. There are a lot of skills you can learning playing D&D-  collaborative problem solving, team building, working in groups, spatial awareness, multiplication, plus all of the creative things involved with running or taking part in a campaign, like character and world building.

And the current generation of D&D players are finding ways to use D&D to not just instill a love of the game in kids, but also teach children development skills. One author has even come up with a version for pre-preschoolers!

Laura Petelle has released a free game called Monster Dice Fight, a proto-D&D game for preschoolers that also teaches Early Learning Standards skills. As she describes it:

My husband was eager for our sons to get big enough to play D&D with him, and I suggested they were big enough now -- if we adjusted the game. I had recently been in early learning standard presentations, so that was on my mind as well... Parents can adjust the game in a variety of ways to help their children with specific developmental tasks, and can at the same time create appropriate challenges within the game for children of different ages.

If the kids are a little older and you want to introduce them to D&D, collaborative storytelling and some of the game mechanics, artist Jason Howe has you covered with "D&D For 8 Year Olds". As he explains it:

For my son's 8th birthday party he convinced me to run Dungeons and Dragons for four 2nd graders... I decided to take actual characters made in the DND Insider and simplify them us that the boys could have fun without much of a learning curve. Here are the six characters I made from scratch for the game. I am happy to report it was a huge success, each boy had a fantastic time... and so did I. I would happily do it again.

Howe didn't leave girls out, either, and created a number of boy and girl character sheets in full color, all ready to print out and personalize, which you can check out here.

RPGX at A-Kon 2008 in Dallas This Weekend

Just a reminder—you can meet members of the RPGX crew at the A-Kon anime convention in Dallas from May 31 to June 1st.

I’ll be wandering the convention on Saturday and Sunday in-between interviewing people, or setting up interviews, or taking notes at a panel. I’ll be waering a plain-white T shirt with the RPGX logo on the front.

Fellow RPGX member (and former roomie) Wraith should be haunting the tabletop gaming area and should be playing in two Palladium Robotech games run by an area Megaversal Ambassador.

My wife is returning to the Dealer’s Room, once again running her Green Dragon Candles ‘n’ More booth, selling scented candles & incense .

Other RPGXers, check in! Any other site fans, are you going to be there? Maybe we could organize some sort of meetup?

Scenes From a D&D Barbarian Campaign

So, my character, Par Vaartal The Dark, is a barbarian originally from the frozen north. The current campaign has the group of barbarian PCs plucked from around the world and dumped in a strange, almost tropical forest and plains. So, in addition to initial communication difficulties, there is also the geographical unfamiliarities.

Michelle's character, Dru, is a fierce warrior as well. The group was just jumped by a horde of Kobolds, and through a hard-fought battle, use of the death's door rule (where if you're healed quickly enough after your hit points drop below zero, you don't die), and our groups SOLE shaman healer, Par Vaartal is taken from near death to a whopping 3 hit points.

Dru wants to help. She is not a healer. She knows just enough to realize that the healer can't make another healing check unless there is a fresh wound to be healed. Dru approaches Par, and says "Do you trust me?"

Par nos, "Yes, of course!"

... only to be poked by Dru a second later with her dagger; after all, if she can make a tiny wound, then the healer can heal that, and perhaps gain Par a few more HP...

... and ends up doing maximum damage with her dagger: 4 points. PLUS her strength bonus.

So, of course, Par was a little leery of her when ever he saw her dagger.

In another irony, the healer used the last of her healing herbs.... and brought Par Vaartal back up to positive hit points.

TWO hit points total. So it was a net loss. ;)

But also one of the funniest moments in any campaign.

DIY D&D: Faerie Dragon PC Write-Up For Dungeons and Dragons (2nd Ed)

With the permission of her writer, I am pleased to share with you the write-up our gaming group uses for the Faerie Dragon as a PC Race. Enjoy.

Faerie Dragon (As a Player Character Race)

by the Awe-Inspiring Snowflake F. Dragon

Human Legend: A chaotic offshoot of the pseudo-dragon (though we all know this is not true), the Faerie Dragon lives in peaceful, tangled forests and thrives on pranks, mischief, and practical jokes. (Well, not really… We actually thrive on apples!)

Faerie Dragons resemble miniature dragons with thin bodies, long prehensile tails, gossamer butterfly wings, and hug smiles. (In other words… PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWER… In an industrial-sized package!) Their colors range through the spectrum, changing from the red of a hatchling to the black of a great wyrm. (Or whenever they feel like being fashionable with a new trend.) The hides of females have a golden tinge that sparkles in sunlight; males have a silver tinge. (Of course! More proof that females are more valuable!)

All Faerie Dragons can communicate telepathically with one another at a distance of up to two miles. (We’re still hunting down whoever let THAT secret out…) They speak their own languages, along with the language of sprites, pixies, elves, and the birds and animals in their area. (Well, duh!?! We ARE part fey after all! Sheesh…)

Faerie Dragons make their lairs in the hollows of high trees, preferably near a pond or stream, because they are quite fond of swimming and diving. (Okay, we can forgive the humans for this little flaw… They’re only human after all… Of COURSE we live in trees… Preferably apple trees… It’s just easier to get at’em that way… However, not all of us are that fortunate. Also, not ALL of us can swim, but we all love to dive… It helps in our aerial tricks.) They often live in the company of a group of pixies or sprites. (Actually, we live with whomever we choose! We ARE all powerful after all. We’re just seen more often with pixies and sprites because they know how to PAR-TAY!)

Faerie Dragons take advantage of every opportunity to wreak mischief on passers-by, frequently using forest creatures to help in their pranks. (Okay… NOW, I’m insulted! We do NOT take EVERY opportunity to “wreak mischief.” Only on those who deserve it!) Though many of these pranks are spontaneous, months of preparation can go into a single, spectacular practical joke. A tell-tale giggle, which sounds like the tinkling of tiny silver bells, often alerts potential victims to the presence of invisible Faerie Dragons. (That would be the males’ fault… They’re ticklish.)

Faerie Dragons eat fruit, (apples,) vegetables, (apples,) nuts, (apples,) roots, (apples,) honey, (dandelions,) and grains (and apples). They are especially fond of fruit (apple) pastries and have been known to go to great lengths to get a fresh apple pie. (Well, not any more since they started putting out Faerie Dragon Shrines on their windows.)

Statistic Adjustments: Due to our phenomenal powers, yet compact bodies, Faerie Dragons have the following adjustments to their Attributes:

-4 to Strength

+4 to Intelligence

-2 to Wisdom

+3 to Dexterity

+2 to Constitution

Basic Information: Here’s what’s common in the physical abilities of Faerie Dragons…

Alignment: Chaotic Good or Chaotic Neutral. (NO EVIL! That’s just nucky!)

Base Armor Class: 5

Base Number of Attacks: 1 (Usually by Breath Weapon, spell, or Bite for 1 – 2 points of damage.)

Diet: Herbivore

Hit Dice: Same as Class

Movement: 6, Flight 24 (A)

Size: “Tiny” (1’ to 1½’ tall.)

Natural Abilities: All Faerie Dragons are capable of the following… It’s just getting the right amount of “umph!” behind it that counts…

• -15% from all Experience Gained due to our phenomenal abilities.
• 1xDay per Level – Able to use Breath Weapon
  o A 2-foot diameter cloud of euphoria gas
  + A victim failing a Saving Throw vs. Breath Weapon will wander around aimlessly in a state of bliss for the next 3d4 minutes, during which time he is unable to attack and his Armor Class is decreased by 2. Even though he is unable to attack, the victim can keep his mind on the situation if he succeeds in an Intelligence Check each round; if he fails an Intelligence Check, he completely loses interest in the matters at hand for the duration of the breath weapon’s effect.
• Able to communicate telepathically with another Faerie Dragon at a distance of up to two miles. This is a natural ability, and non-psionic. (So, you squid faces and dehydrated platypuses can just stay away!)
• Able to speak (or converse) with any fey for Faerie Dragons know all their languages; They are fey after all.
• Able to turn invisible at will;A Faerie Dragon must make an Intelligence Check to remain invisible if they attack a victim.
• Any spell cast (regardless of what class or school it’s from) by the Faerie Dragon has the same chance to surge similar to a Wild Mage. (See Tome of Magic for Surge Chart.)
• Comeliness Statistic is actually considered “Cuteness.”
• Due to the number of Cantrip: Color spells that are available to Faerie Dragons, they are able to choose whatever color they wish to be. Most are usually a variety in colors.
• Due to their delicate frame and nature, Faerie Dragons are unable to wear armor and weapons are to be made especially for their small size (i.e., pixie bow).
• Gains 8% Magic Resistance per Level;Up to 96% MAXIMUM!
• Upon Character Creation, a Faerie Dragon must decide which natural “school” (cleric, druid, or wizard) their magic is based from. Each time their class increases, the amount of natural spells they are able to cast also increases. (Intelligence and Wisdom Bonuses do apply.) See chart below.

  
  Class Level     1  2  3  4  5  6*  7**
         1     1  ---  ---  ---  ---  ---  ---
         2     2  ---  ---  ---  ---  ---  ---
         3     2  1  ---  ---  ---  ---  ---
         4     3  2  ---  ---  ---  ---  ---
         5     3  2  1  ---  ---  ---  ---
         6     3  2  2  ---  ---  ---  ---
         7     3  3  2  1  ---  ---  ---
         8     3  3  3  2  ---  ---  ---
         9     4  3  3  2  1  ---  ---
         10     4  4  3  3  2  ---  ---
         11     4  4  4  3  2  ---  ---
         12     4  4  4  3  3  1  ---
         13     4  4  4  4  3  2  ---
         14     4  4  4  4  3  2  1
         15     4  4  4  4  4  2  1
  

These are spells to be treated similar to any other mage or priest spells in that 8 hours of rest is required to regain the energy to cast them, and the spells selected for the day.

Post any question or comments you have here

A Great resource for DMs: Gnome Stew

Wanted to give a little link-love to a site I discovered last week. It's called Gnome Stew.

It's a game mastering blog, written by GMs, for GMs. With 10 authors, Gnome Stew delivers system-neutral and system-specific content for game masters.

Here's a bit from a great recent article, 12 Ways To Use Google Apps at the Game Table:

Personally, I think Google Docs is one of the most powerful and useful applications that Google offers. It’s a basic word processor, spreadsheet and presentation program, but with the ability to share documents and have users edit them simultaneously and collaboratively. For instance, one of the simplest ways to use Docs is as a character sheet. Once it’s done, have your players share the character sheet with you and the other players. That way you can always access the most recent version of their characters. Now you can check their current Spot and Listen checks and don’t need to keep pestering them to update the hard copy that’s perpetually two levels behind. If one of your players misses a game, your group has a copy of their character ready to play.

Along a similar vein, you can share hireling and party NPCs among your group so that anyone can pop the sheet open and start running them.

Some more advanced usage might be to keep a collaborative party log. Nobody likes keeping a log, so let your players share the work. Changes to the document are shown in other people’s open documents nearly instantly, so when Suzie types in “Met Orc King,” John can update that to include the King’s name, and you can correct the spelling.

Loot tracking is another task that is sometimes viewed as tedious. A shared party loot tracking spreadsheet can share the load, and prevent the rogue from skimming off the top. (Sure, that’s in character. Jerk.)

If you’re busy (or lazy) you can create a house rules document but make your players do the work of entering the questions, changes and clarifications when they come up at the table.

Stat Shot: More Home-made D&D Characters

Partially as a reminder for tomorrow night's D&D game my wife is co-running, and partially so I can gauge interest in more homebrewed stuff, here is a quick and dirty info sheet on the character I'll be playing this Friday: a Faerie Dragon Mage.

Character: Jareth Q(uincy) F(aerie) Dragon
Class: Mage
Level: 5
Align: CG
Racial Advantages: As per Faerie Dragon PC write-up
Racial Disadvantages: As per Faerie Dragon PC write-up
ALT USE OF EXPXP /PENALTIES: One Clerical Spell, 1st Level (Cure Minor): 10%, Being a Faerie Dragon: 15%= 25% XP penalty
Advantages:
Bonus Spells, Any School (15 points), Improved Hit Die [d6] (10 Points), 4 Extra non-weapon proficiencies (4 points)
Disadvantages:
Allergy, apples [SEVERE] (8 pts); Behavior: Must Reciprocate or Repay Gifts (2 pts); Forbidden from Using Spell Under The Necromancy School (5 pts), Phobia, Undead [Severe](14pts)
Jareth was always a quiet and studious faerie dragon, rather shy and bookish for his kind, viewed as something of an oddball for his allergy to apples. He also turned out to be born with an unusually keen intellect (INT of 20), and wanted to know what made magic MAGIC. He dotes on his younger sister, Teedra, and encourages her to always excel in her magical studies. He also spoils her rotten (at least, as rotten as a Faerie Dragon can get), continually sending her all sorts of exotic bananas and banana-related desserts.
While Jareth doesn't need to wear spectacles to correct his vision, he dwears them because he feels they lend him an air of authority (or, in one case, are a minor magical relic). His guiding purpose in life is to study magic thoroughly enough to unlock the secret to becoming a Chosen of Mystra, goddess of Magic.
Jareth loves bananas, especially banana pie. Despite his academic nature, his devotion to magical studies, and his large vocabulary, he does have a typical faerie dragon prankster's streak within him that occasionally manifests itself in harmless cantrips (like the time he made a stuffy knight nearly beside herself by daily changing the color of her horse's mane for one week straight). Unlike most faerie dragons, Jareth tends to keep his scales one color-- a royal purple.
NWPs: Arcanology; Sage Knowledge: Cartography; Alchemy; Read/Write; Spellcraft; Religion; Heraldry; Fire building; Cooking; Direction Sense; Hypnotism; Languages: Common, Elven, Dwarvish, Draconic

Two More Great Tributes To Gary Gygax

There are two more great articles released in the wake of Gary Gyx's death that I wanted to call your attention to:

Jeremy Parish and the 1UP.com editorial staff compiled a wonderful article entitled Five Things Games Have Learned from Dungeons & Dragons that shows just what sort of far-reaching effects on video games and computer games Gary Gygax has wrought.

From the 1Up article:

It's taken three decades, but videogames are finally catching on to one of the most fundamental elements of D&D: emergent gameplay. Because the rules and guidebooks for the tabletop game were merely a suggestion, a set of conditions and constraints for building an adventure, the actual content and outcome of every group and every session varied wildly. This wasn't a matter of the random math, though -- it was the human factor. The dungeon master was a sort of guide, nudging the heroes in the right direction and adapting rapidly when they strayed. Not surprisingly, videogames have generally kind of sucked at this. The computer serves as a dungeon master by proxy for the creators, and computers aren't known for their boundless imagination. But they're catching up thanks to canny design. MMOs are very much the successors to D&D, bringing people together to deal with the randomness that results from so many real players gathered in a single place (not to mention the occasional interference of the game masters). But even smaller-scale games like Battlefield and Halo 3 have become sandboxes for goofing around, and single-player games like The Sims and Grand Theft Auto give players enough freedom to make their own fun.

And Wired has a great article chronicling the life of Gary Gygax, and includes lots of little-known games and some photos from Gygax's family. A choice personal bit of trivia from the article:

Gygax and a few of his buddies carried that DIY spirit even further, devising a game of their own around WWII tank combat. He was determined that his game would avoid the "goofy bell curve"that resulted from rolling a pair of six-sided dice (2s and 12s are rare, while 6s, 7s, and 8s are comparatively frequent). To achieve a more linear curve, he determined that players must pluck 1 of 20 numbered poker chips from a hat, so that there was an equal 5 percent probability of each outcome. Gygax later found the perfect replacement for this clunky system: In a school supply catalog, he discovered dice shaped like all of the Platonic solids, including the icosahedron: A 20-sided die.

But don't just take my word for it; check 'em out!

Dungeons & Doggerel 2: Electric Bugaloo

Remember my previous post detailing spell poems I wrote for my 2nd Edition D&D Bard?

Reader R^2 has contributed a few more! here they are:

Time Stop--
For this spell all the Mythal is beckoned
And the power of aracnists reckoned
All reality twists
While this spell exists,
But it's Time Stop, so I've got second.

Prismatic Sphere--
If you're as dangerous as you appear,
I'll defend with a Prismatic Sphere.
You've got seven dispels
Before this ward is quelled
While you do that, I'll go get a beer.

Power Word, Kill--
I've patiently waited until
your health dropped below 60. Now we'll
Allow no saving throw
'Cuz when it comes, you go;
That's what I mean by "Power Word Kill"

Gate--
The gods themselves laugh and chortle
At reality at the whim of mortals
Let's pop open this Gate
To see if we can relate
Because now, we're thinking with portals

Dungeons And Dragons Special Martial Arts

In the aforementioned houseruled 2nd edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons games my gaming group runs, players are continually encouraged to come up with new or unique ways of doing things with one's character. One of my characters, a half-dragon thief/martial artist, has a few maneuvers I've created that may be of interest to anyone that used martial arts in either 2nd AD&D or the Oriental Adventures handbook setting.

Long Talon Heart Strike:
Forgoing all other attacks for the round, on a successful hit with this maneuver, the opponent struck will take no damage. However, once the opponent has moved a total of 15 feet (or ten feet if the opponent is size Small or smaller), they must immediately make a saving throw vs. Death Magic. A successful save means the opponent is stunned for 1d2 rounds. A failed save means that the opponent falls, instantly dead.

The Long Talon Heart Strike may only be attempted once on an opponent. If the opponent's save is successful, then it is immune to the attack forever after. This attack will automatically fail if used against undead.

Heart of The Dragon Kata:
Once/day the martial artist may apply half of their level (or level of Martial Artist, if they are multi-classed) as a bonus to one's Strength score. This bonus lasts only one round.

Relentless Midnight Kata:
Once/day, if the Martial Artist has been wounded to half or more of one's maximum hit points, the Martial Artist may spend one melee attack to gain temporary hit points equal to four times the Martial Artist's level. These hit points are temporary, lasting for 1d6 rounds, and the martial artist will suffer damage at the end of the 1d6 duration if healing has not been performed.

Remembering Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons

Last week, Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons, the grandfather of tabletop roleplaying games, passed away at the age of 69.

On a personal level, news of his passing made me very sad. I had hoped to meet him at GenCon some day, shake his hand, and thank him for creating a product that had such a profound impact on not just the person I am today, but the writer I strove to become. The house I live in now, with the friends I have down here in Texas, I would not have if it was not for D&D. My work with RPGX? A fellow D&D player in our gaming group introduced me to RPGX's head honcho. One of my best friends, a man who became ordained just so he could be the one to officiate at my wedding was someone I first got to know via a few sessions where he ran some amazing Dungeons and Dragons games.

Tributes have been pouring in from all over the 'net in ways personal, profound, profane, hilarious, and heart-warming.

Here's a run down of some of the best tributes:

Web comics:

• The Order of the Stick
• Penny Arcade
• Full Frontal Nerdity
• XKCD
• Dork Tower
  

Online Communities:

• Metafilter
  
• RPGX.org
• RPG.net
• Gary Gygax Facts
• Worst Forums Ever

Also of note are three illuminatingt looks at Gygax: a cute interview with Gygax from 2001,
and video of Gygax reflecting upon the influence of D&D in the movie Uber Goober: A Film About Gamers, and an article about Gygax from The Believer published September 2006.

Every tabletop or fantasy gamer owes this man a debt of gratitude. I'd say if you're a nerd of any stripe, you probably have a memory of your first encounter with Dungeons and Dragons.

Share in the comments section!

Dungeons & Dogerell: Spell POems in AD&D

Okay, so it's probably no big surprise that I am Dorky McNerdpants, and thus play D&D once a week with a bunch of friends (and it's house-ruled 2nd edition Dungeons and Dragons, to boot!).

One of my characters is a Celtic-flavored bard by the Name of Daffyd ApOwen, and one quirk I gave him are the fact that along with whatever requirment he has for casting spells, he has to end it with some sort of poem.

So...


Armor: "Gather energies around me/ Magic armor doth surround me."
Burning Hands: "Heart's passion, desert sands/Inner flame brings burning hands."
Color Spray: "From my hands, I shall show/ Wonders of the sky's rainbow!"
Comprehend Languages: "With my touch, words are clear/ Whether I must read or I must here."
Enlarge: "Girth now grows with but a word/Magic can be its own reward/"
Reduce (reversed form of Enlarge): "Larger creature, now ye ken/The diff'rence 'tween mice and men."
Featherfall: "Gentle winds, heed my call!/Gift me with a feather's fall!"
Hypnotism: "Trust in me I suggest/ That you heed my one request."
Light: "Glowing softly, captured day/Sliver o'Sun, light our way."
Magic Missile: "Mage's missile shall do harm/ All in sight should take alarm!"
Message: "Bear my words upon this gust/of wind to whom that i must trust."
Read Magic: "Open my mind that I might see/ Reveal thy secrets unto me."
Shield Magic: "Magic Missile, do no harm/Mages now should be alarmed!"
Sleep: "Close your eyes and dream deep/Now 'tis time to go to sleep"
Ventriloquism: "Magic's weaves, place my voice/ In a location of my choice."


Now for second level spells, I figured that instead of just doing the rhyming line again, or adding more lines, a spell could just have a one line evocative image, like so:

Blur: "'Tis neither here, nor there/ but everywhere."
Continual Light: "And thus! The Sun opens its unblinking eye!"
Detect Invisible: "Lo! The Weave's hand parts the Unseen's veil!"
Detect Evil: "Hark! Evil's shroud is ripped away!"
Flaming Sphere: "Doom in fire's what I desire!"
Knock: "No matter the lock, my will is the key!"
Leomund's Trap: "Wand'ring fingers, prying eyes/Rogues'll get a nasty surprise!"
Magic Mouth: "Speak when magic deems others should be spoken to."
Melf's Acid Arrow: "Sizzle, bubble, bowstring and trouble!"
Pyrotechnics: "Snake of smoke, coil about me."
Web: "What a tangled Mythal Weave..."

Now, while this character will not be able to cast 8th level spells for quite some time, I figured that the second-highest level of spells in the PLayer's Handbook needed an awesome for to go with it: Haiku!

I only have one written so far, though.

Binding:
"The Mythal weaves ties that bind/
Mine bind further still/
An unbreakable circle."

Ninth level spels are the highest level available in the player's handbook, so what sort of epic form should be used for these spells?

Limericks, DUH!


Wish:
"I'm finally of magickal skill
Enough to bend it to my will.
Of the Mythal I ask
This one humble task:
Make the following wish be fulfilled."

Astral Spell:
"When body and soul're combined,
the complete person's intertwined.
Separate 'em, you're dead,
but with an astral thread,
and this spell, well, you're totally fine."

Have Fun Now, ASCII Me How!

While PC games like Crysis make your video card cry and beg for its motherboard, there is a revival of appreciation for ASCII games rippling its way through the gaming community.

Here are some gems I've found recently:

• ASCII Sector, a remake of the classic Wing Commander Privateer
• The surprisingly action-packed Doom RL;
• Legerdemain (
• And the hardest strategy game ever, Dwarf Fortress (now with a new unofficial tileset and experimental 3-D visualizer that may prevent some eye-bleeding).

Classic, complex Rogue-like RPGs continue to go strong, too.

Those interested in exploring further should peruse this list of the best new releases from ASCII dreams.

WOTC Announces Plans for D&D 4E Open Gaming License

Wizards of the Coast recently announced its plans for the 4th edition version of the Open Gaming License for the up-and-cming Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition. Noticeable differences include earlier access to 4th ed OGL content and an exclusive "head start" sort of publishing window to companies forking over 5 grand.

Notable game designer Robin D. Laws had this to say in his livejournal recently:

The $5000 access fee is a blunt and imperfect instrument. It keeps the basement operations in the starting blocks, but doesn’t stop a couple of well-funded entities from pumping out deluges of quickie products. It may dissuade some established companies from entering the fray, depriving players of some hypothetical high-quality products. Overall, though, it should go at least some distance toward better matching the quantity of products produced to the market’s ability to absorb them. More finely tuned approaches to the problem, like quality inspection by WotC designers or outside committees, are either financially or organizationally unfeasible. A coarse solution is better than none at all.

What say you, gentle readers?

Help A Homeless Shelter By Donating Your Used RPG Material

From livejournal user belladonalin:

Hey, ya'll.

So those of you who are on my regular friendslist know that I work at a homeless shelter with street-dependent and homeless teenagers. I have a handful of kids there who are gamers. Unfortunately, when they had to move out of their respective homes, they lost all their gaming stuff.

I know that there are some people on my friendstlist who used to be D&D gamers (or still are) and I'm wondering - if you have your old gear that you're not using, would you mind sending it to me for these kids?

They're trying, you know? They're trying to stay out of gangs and away from the drugs and in general to maintain relatively normal lives. I'd buy the stuff for them, but that's not appropriate for me to do.

So, if you have any of the following, used and in any condition? I'd love it. More importantly, they would.

Need:
Any extra character sheets you can spare (or direct me to a decent downloadable one?)
Player’s Handbook
Dungeon Master’s Guide
Monster Manuel I
Player set of dice (1 D4, 4 D6, percentiles, 1 D20)

Would Like:
Complete Warrior Handbook
Player’s Handbook II
Dungeons and Dragons Miniatures
Feind Folio
Monsters Manual 2-4
Complete Arcane
Complete Divine
Complete Scoundrel
Complete Adventurer

More info here.

The Code, November 07: Video Games Are Art, Cut Scenes are Rubbish, D&D 4th Ed Is Exciting, Behind the Portal, Haloween Fun, and more!

Welcome, all you dice-rollers, card-floppers, war-gamers, LAN-partiers, tabletop jockeys, MMORPGers, and LARPers! Welcome, one and all, on this post-Hallowe'en mourn, visions of candy corn and sugared treats dancing in your head. I'm your host, Shawn Struck, and you might remember me from such famous websites as 1UP.com, 411Mania.com, or maybe even the toast of the 'net, DoesThis20SidedDieMakeMeLookFat.com.

Of course, RPGX.org is your go-to guide for a thriving online community, PC gaming tips, and the latest news and reviews of what's going down in the gaming scene. Every month, the hard-working crew here brings you insightful features; a tour of everything RPG gaming has to offer.

Today, take a walk with me through the month in video games, RPGs of all sorts, and nerd culture-- a tour of a different sort. A walk with the weird, the obscure, the geeky, the freaky, the polemical and the profane.

Thanksgiving is coming, so be sure to save some room for... The Code!

Federal Reserve Of Boston Exhibition Focuses On Video Games
Plus: More 'Video Games As Art' Debate In Newsweek & the 'Net

The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s Economic Adventure Gallery is hosting an engaging, interactive exhibit on the history of video games this fall. It's called “Video Games Evolve: A Brief History from Spacewar! to MMORPGs” and the exhibit examines the video game industry’s roots in New England. The exhibit is planned to run though January 2008, and is free.

From the Fed's news release:

"If guests are interested in a more hands-on experience, they can play classic 1980 arcade games like “Donkey Kong,” “Ms. Pac Man,” “Frogger” or “Space Invaders.” In addition to being able to play these games for free, visitors can admire the sleek fiberglass console of “Computer Space,” an early 1970s arcade game. The exhibit also offers a look at the evolution of the home-gaming console, a timeline of video-game history, and an in-depth look at the motion-capture process (a key animation tool in modern video-game production). The Guildhall at Southern Methodist University, a leading education center for digital-game development, loaned several three-dimensional sculptures of creatures that were used to develop animations."

This is most sincerely awesome. More and more exhibitions like this are popping up all around the country; I think that's an important first step for video games being taken seriously as a medium of artistic expression.

Speaking of artistic expression and video games, Newsweek's N'gai Croal penned an entry called "The Problem (and the Danger) of the continued Infantilization of Videogames" that is well worth a read-- it also sparked a lot of discussion on community weblog Metafilter in the discussion thread "Silly People, Games Aren't Just For Kids".

You Got Your Game In My Cut-Scene!
Er... Cut-Scene In My Game?

Game designer Sam Beirne-- most noted for his work on Guild Wars: Eye of The North and LEGO Star Wars: The Game, has posted an video game design-related rant on his 'It Burns' site - called 'Excuse me, your cutscene is in my game':

"My problem with story generally stems from the inclusion of non-interactive cutscenes throughout the course of character driven games. Bullet points on the back of a box like, 'over 120 minutes of mind-blowing cinematic sequences,' scare me off before I can even crack the wrapper. When I sit down to play a game, I’d actually like to play something. Cutscenes feel like watching someone else play. So, when a cutscene starts rolling I generally can’t help but sigh wondering when it will be my turn again."

Personally, while I think that pre-rendered cut-scenes certainly do, and will continue to, have its place in some games, they can sometimes break up a really immersive experience.

All YouTube, All The Time!:
Dungeons and Dragons 4th Ed May Lure Back Old-Time Gamers; From Narbacular Drop To Portal; Toyota's World of Warcraft; and Beta-Saurus!

First off, the latest Digital Initiative Wizards of The Coast is building into Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition seems perfect for roping in the two enemies that have TPK'ed more gaming groups than anything in the Montrous Manual: Time and Distance.

Pushing D&D in this way is both an admission of the problems of modern (adult) living while also creatively using modern technology to circumvent it. Check out the video below:



The next video is a talk from Valve's Kim Swift at this year's GDC-- she is a key member of the team that was one of the Independent Game Festival's 2006 Student Showcase honorees who went on to be hired by the Half-Life creator as a team and made the critically acclaimed Portal-- explaining how the Portal team successfully transitioned from working as a student team at DigiPen to a professional team structure at Valve.



Toyota went "viral" with a cute homage to the infamous "Leroy Jenkins" incident in World Of Warcraft, which you can see in the third video below.



"I am the LAWGIVER!"... hah!

And finally, an amazing game planned for the X-box that was not to be. All I need to say is: Peter Molyneux and DINOSAURS.



Hey, speaking of Portal...

An Interview With The Guy Who Put Words In GLaDOS' Mouth

Gaming site Rock, Paper, Shotgun has an excellent interview with Eric Wolpaw, formerly of Old Man Murray and Psychonauts and lead writer of Valve's Portal. The interview is full of gems like:

So what do you think is the hardest thing about writing for games?

At strip clubs, there’s a guy whose job is to talk between the strippers. He tries to do a good job and be entertaining and enthusiastic, but everybody’s just there for the nakedness. That’s a professional writer trick we call called an “analogy”. What I really mean is that game writers are the game equivalent of the guy who talks between the nude girls at strip clubs. Nobody cares about what that guy does, and anybody who does care is probably a little maladjusted. So I’d have to say the hardest part of being a game writer is learning all the writing tricks like “analogy”.

The rest is just as hilarious. Read it here.

So You Wanna Write For RPG Publishers?

This article's an oldie, but a goodie:

" You cannot copyright or trademark an idea. Have I surprised you again? A lot of writers who haven't done much writing make the mistake of confusing their ideas with their writing. As many professional writers will tell you, ideas are a dime a dozen. Ideas are everywhere. Ideas are easy. Everyone has ideas.

What sells writing is not the idea behind it but the execution. (In terms of copyright, it works like this: you can't copyright an idea, but you can copyright the expression of an idea.) For example, the vampire story is an overused and fairly trite idea. There are many editors who won't touch one with a ten-foot pole. Yet there are writers who can still execute their vampire stories in such unique and fresh ways that people gobble them up, even after reading another hundred vampire stories. By and large it's the writing that sells RPG supplements, not the plot outline in the proposal. "

As they say in the blogosphere, read the whole thing.

It's Trippy and It's Spooky, It's Geeky and It's Kooky...

It's a little past Hallowe'en as you read this, but that doesn't mean that you can't indulge yourself with some ear candy- in this case nerdcore hip-hop community RhymeTorrent's whopping 2-DISC Halloween-themed EP, available right here for FREE.

"But IronheadShawn, how does this EP relate to video games or RPGs?"

Well, there's a an excellent track by Entity focusing on the Resident Evil series, a Rev Badger track that name-drops White Wolf's Werewolf, and MC Loki's "Prince of the City" that's all about the coups and power plays that go down in a typical Vampire: The Masquerade game. So give it a listen!

McTwisted: McDonald's, The GAME

The irreverently madcap video-game review site "Play This Thing" looked at a game that aims to be a parody of life at McDonald's this month, in its review of McDonald's Video Game:

The game is drawn with a crazy flair, the blood splattered happy meal at the title screen should be some indication. There are subtle touches, like the joint perpetually hung out the mouth of a marketer, or the fact that some of your customers are men with beards wearing skirts -- a byproduct of the randomly combinatorial nature of the character generation system. Watching the constant flow of people getting their trays, then walking off, is sickly hypnotic; it's the core pulse of the game's system, where the commodities turn into cash and complete the play loop, and its also an abstraction of something that is going on all over the world, many times a second. The illustrations and writing are pretty on-point as well (hint: before you bulldoze the Amazonian village to plant more GMO soy, start a "McDonald's for the Third World" campaign).

Here's a link to the review!

Genius, man. The game comes from the Italian crew "Molleindustria" at http://www.molleindustria.org/. They have other work they've done online, too, but be warned, some of the games are decidedly NSFW.

Braaaaiiinnnsss.... I mean.... Gaaaaaammmeeeesss....
So, like any good red-blooded 'netizen, you like zombies, you like killing things, and so it stands to reason you probably like killing zombies. But say you're online, using your web browser to read the latest in the greatest news and gaming columns at 411Mania, and you get a hankering to to splatter the effluvia of the walking dead at the same time. Well, now, YOU CAN!

Here are more zombie games than you could possibly shake a severed limb at:Zombiegrinder! ;All Hallows Eve ; Divine Intervention ; Zombie Patrol ; Grave 2 ; Crunch Time ; Zombie Terror ;Loot 'n Shoot ; Zombie Horde ;Zombie Hunter ;Zombie Hunter II ;Zombie 4 ; Zombie Survival ; Generic Zombie Shoota with Cartoon briefing ; Zombie Killer 2071 ;Zombie Killer 2072 ; Zombie Squirrel Attack ; Zombie Swarm ; Land of the Dead ; Zombie Erik ; Zombie Escape ;Resident Evil: Apocalypse ;Stickman Sam 2;Zombie Worms ;Resident Devil ;
Monster Mash ;Fright Club ;Graveyard of Drunken Souls; Springfield Zombies ;Zombie Romp ;Zombie Gringer 60000&Umbrella Corporation Bio-Lab ;Dawn of the Dead: Zombie Massacre ;Grave Robber ;Escape from Zombie High! ; Shaun of the Dead ; Zombie Attack ;Ultimate Down ;Thing Thing Arena ; Night of the Zombie Kittens ;Resident Evil Escape; Zombie Survival: SM ;Survival Game v1.2 ;Zombie Survival Training ;Escape from Zombie Town ;Escape from Zombie Town 0 ;ZombieSimulator annnnnnnnd, finally: Teh Zombie 2 .

Pimping Is Easy When You Use The Code!

That's all for this installment-- have comments, questions, suggestions, or items you'd like to submit for The Code? Discuss it in our forum!

You can check out fellow RPGX staff thedixman doin' his thing that he does so well for RPGX here!

RPGX.org is here!

And if you're looking for the perfect place for specialty candles, incense, gaming supplements and more, check out Green Dragon Candles 'n' More.

Until then, be excellent to each other... and read my stuff!