The Worth of Eberron

The Icosahedrophilia (say that five times fast) blog has a quick post noting the worth of the newly-released Eberron Campaign Setting. While we at d20 haven’t had a chance to look at the book just yet, the site does a good job of pitching prospective buyers on the bang-for-your-buck component in the tome.

While the author isn’t actually running a game in the Eberron setting, he’s already making plans to use Eberron-style game elements and mechanics in the story. Many parts of Chapter 3, apparently, can be lifted mechanically straight out of the book and transported into another game.

A great big thumbs-up in our book, in an era when hardcover supplements cost more and more every few years.

Site Recommmendation: The Tome Show

If you aren’t a podcast listener already … why the hell not? Grab a copy of iTunes, search around for some tabletop goodness, and bask in the vibrant player community around us.

The Tome Show, a weekly podcast by Jeff Greiner, does a great job of keeping us up-to-date on the latest in the world of Dungeons and Dragons. Not only does he do a great job of covering canonical material from Wizards of the Coast, but he does regular reviews of third-party published works as well.

The Tome also features regular guests from around the blogosphere and D&D community. Recent guests have included notables like Wolfgang Baur, Chris Perkins, and the amazing James Wyatt.

If you’re a D&D 4E player, you owe it to yourself to keep up with the game like this every week. Check out the Tome Show on the Vorpal Network!

High Roller

Site Recommendation: A Rust Monster Ate My Sword

If you’re a hardcore 4E junkie ARMAMS isn’t going to give you the latest updates on the hobby or some slick character building tricks. Instead, Rust Monster’s schtick seems to be to look at the hobby on the whole with the weathered eye of a veteran. Chris uses the site as an outlet for his Basic Dungeons and Dragons information and viewpoints, and there’s plenty of room on the internets for someone not talking about the latest and greatest.

This week it’s particularly worth reading the site, as Chris it dicing up some fantastic old comic-book style D&D advertisements. He’s already pulled apart one where a green slime is the climactic encounter, and another that sees a party member falling through a trap door. He’s promised to dissect even more ads during the week, so be sure to read today and check back soon, over at A Rust Monster Ate My Sword!

DM of the Rings

If you’re a Dungeons and Dragons fan and haven’t ready this Twenty-Sided tale yet, you’re missing out. Author Shamus Young pens a hilarious script backing still movie captures from all three of Peter Jackson’s epic films. Follow a mercenary Strider, a bored Sam and Frodo, and a downright antagonistic Pippin as they work their way through the DM’s overblown backstory and railroading plots.

Well worth a weekend read!

Videogame RPG Essentials

The videogame professional’s website Gamasutra recently ran a mighty interesting top 20 style article running down some truly great computer game RPGs. Calling these works ‘design essentials’, they run the gambit from Nethack and Wasteland to modern powerhouses like World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy.

The analysis of what makes each of these games great is well worth reading. As a tabletop DM, you might want to keep in mind some of the decisions that have worked so well on the PC side of the table. D&D was the building block for most of the modern MMOs … might as well learned from what our hobby hath wrought!

Magic’s Legacy in Dungeons and Dragons

The Hero Twice a Month blog is usually a pretty great read, but the last few posts have been particularly outstanding. In one recent screed the author looks at the influence of Wizards of the Coasts’ other big franchise on Dungeons and Dragons. Magic: the Gathering mechanics have crept into our pen-and-paper experience in some interesting, subtle ways.

Magic: The Gathering is all about customizing your deck.  A good deck consists of cards that may be individually decent, but devastating when combined. Dungeons & Dragons 3E added this concept of customization to player characters.  Using feats, multiclass, and prestige classes players were able to customize their characters like never before.

A thoughtful discussion of the cross-pollination of game mechanics between the two games, and respectful to boot! Well worth a read this evening.