The Spore creature creator demo was released in the last couple days, and I’ve been wasting a good amount of time with it. I just have the freebie version, but I’ve already made a bunch of fun stuff, including this ethereal filcher:

It’s amazing how close to the illustration I was able to get (one of my favorite monster illustrations ever):

You can get the Spore demo here.

I spent Worldwide D&D Game Day at Stonebridge Games in Longmont playing a defensive dwarven fighter named Haskal Thoradane in a 4th edition Eberron adventure run by Keith Baker, the guy who invented Eberron. The above picture was taken from an article the Longmont Times-Call did on the event. Keith is kind of a big deal.

The adventure was called “One Night in Graywall”, and it was inspiring to witness what a professional writer and dungeon master can do at a game table. I agreed not to discuss any specifics of the adventure on the site, but at the risk of sounding fanboy-ish it really was awesome. Each character had a carefully detailed backstory that lent itself to an unfolding over the course of skill challenges and combat encounters. It all lead up to a climactic final encounter that had me both emotionally invested and tactically challenged. The man also makes great use of all kinds of gaming aids to keep the turns flowing and gamestate information manageable. There were counters for healing surges and action points, little metal brains to remind a player when they needed to make a saving throw, and magnetic discs to stick under minis to keep track of effects on players and monsters.

Keith was a really nice guy, and stuck around for several hours after the adventure to chat about Eberron, 4th edition, and whatever else came up. After a seven-player game of Three Dragon Ante (I took a respectable 2nd place finish) he talked to all of us about some of the deeper concepts behind Eberron, and made me see the setting in a light I hadn’t before. He has agreed to do some interview questions for the site over the coming weeks, so I’ve been straining my brain to come up with good questions.

In other news, I have been devouring the three core rule books for 4th edition. That is the reason this post is coming on Wednesday instead of Sunday like it should have. I also want to get a review up ASAP, but feel I’m not quite familiar enough with the system yet to quantify its value. I’ve logged about 10 hours as a player, but have only DMed a few solo encounters for friends. But that’ll change soon, my first 4th edition campaign begins in earnest on Friday afternoon.

The campaign is set in and around Fallcrest, the town detailed in the back of the Dungeon Master’s Guide. I only have two regular players right now, but I’m going to have appropriately levelled preconstructed characters ready should one of my other friends want to join in on short notice. On that note, I think I’m going to get back to working on their first adventure.

It’s about 1:15 and I’m just getting home from the release event at Gryphon Games and Comics in Fort Collins. It was a great introductory session. The event ended up being 5 tables (each with 5 players and a DM) all running a 1st level introductory module called ‘Into the Shadowhaunt’. Our table was made up of three buddies (Mike, Bill, and Lang), me, a quiet guy named Ray, and Sherman, our DM. The DM laid out the pre-constructed characters for us to choose from: A human fighter, dwarf fighter, human cleric, eladrin wizard, and half-elf rogue.

Mike and Bill seemed excited to play a duo of brawling fighters, Lang decided on the wizard, I was happy to play the cleric, and Ray seemed cool with the rogue. Sherman, a store employee, got his DM materials ready and briefly explained the rules. We all seemed to be pretty comfortable with the setup, although I think Ray may have been a newer player and kind of confused on just how many actions he got on his turn.

After an introductory explaination and about 45 minutes roleplaying the social encounters in a town called Shadowmere we headed to a mausoleum outside town that was the last seen location of two missing farmer’s kids. And then there was a puzzle encounter to even get in the place. I was itching to get into the combat by this point and found myself a little game weary, but thankfully we got through the puzzle and the DM brought out the game mat to get this fourth edition business started proper.

I found myself really liking the versatility of my cleric’s powers. I could heal, dish out some damage, and boost the effectiveness of my allies, often all in the same turn. The at-will/encounter/daily power setup works so much better than 3rd edition’s setup of spells and basic attacks. Everyone seemed to have a fun variety of powers, each useful in its own way.

Our table had a good social dynamic. Ray the rogue stayed quiet and stuck to ranged attacks for the most part. The eladrin (which everyone just called a faerie) wizard darted around with little concern for the rest of the party, occasionally including us in the blast radius of a spell or sneaking off in the middle of a fight to claim a treasure chest. The two fighters were loud and full of bravado, revelling in the highs and lows of their dice. At one point an axe was accidently launched at one of the fighters instead of the living statues we were fighting and there was a resulting in-game scuffle between the two that was alot of fun. As the cleric I played the party’s moral center. I gladly volunteered the party for a missions without rewards, and subsequently was suckered into paying the fighters’ bar tab the morning after their drinking contest.

Sherman was a confident and capable DM. He kept momentum up during the story encounters at the beginning of the game, and had a strong grasp of the combat rules. He wasn’t much for elaborate attack descriptions, aside from his regular explaination of the wizard’s magic missles. I have a feeling the occasional modifier fell through the cracks. However that was really as much the players’ doing as it was the DM’s, and no one seemed to mind.

We played through the preview adventure and then had an extra battle with a young white dragon on a frosty peak. I think everyone had a really good time, and I look forward to more adventures like that. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a new Player’s Handbook to pour over for the first time…