Good Lord.

Nearly a year and I have kept this blog silent.

heh

Slilent Blog

Kevin Smith might be turning over in his grave right now.

Oh Kevin Smith isn’t dead.

Anyway, if I can actually get off my ass maybe I can resurrect this blog spot.

Oh and I got Type 2 Diabetes…WOOoooOOOoooOOO!

I got some stuff to write about so as I have said before watch this space.

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So welcome to the beginning of Kanith-Tor!  Huh? What? Who? Let me explain.

It has always been my desire to build one game world to house all my campagins I run for D & D.  So in essance build a world by running games of D & D…And I am here today to tell you that I have epiclly failed on that front for nearly a year and a half.

I lost my muse for gaming.  I didn’t stop gaming, just I have been awash in a sea of total creative rut. 

4E came out…and I was so excited.  I love the system, I love the changes, I love the way it plays, the ease of running…I have spent a lot of time looking into the nuances of the system. 

So I feel I am technically well versed in the mechanics of the game.  But…I haven’t been able to get a really solid campagin in my head.  I have been running pre-written adventures, kit bashed things, converted older edition adventures, and nothing really from y own dreamscape.   I thought my well had gone dry.  Well that was until last week. 

I had a Jimmy Neuton says a “Brain Blast” and images and story elements started running through my head.  I have written some of these down and others are still swirling in my head. But I think I have finally come to the point where I can strike while the iron is hot and make a worth while D & D game again. 

I will be posting updates at my new gaming blog site(Well old but now about to be used) www.kanithtor.wordpress.com

So start checking that site out for insights and creative building from me over the next few weeks to months. 

You can’t stop the signal!

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So everytime I say I am gonna blog more shit hits the fan and I never do.

Sigh…This time I am gonna say it again and I hope to god I keep up with it.

I mean it…heh…really I have some stuff I need to write down and get out to those that actually want to read what I have to say. 

Mostly about gaming….but some life stuff too. Its been way way way too long.  So watch out folks more is coming

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I LOVE D&D 4TH EDITION!

Now let me take a step back.

Started playing D&D about 25 years ago. I was 8…did I understand the Player’s Handbook? Not really. Did I know how to make a story driven, background laden, deep PC? Nope not a chance…In fact my very first character was in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D for short). Sir Richard, a Cleric/Wizard clad in plate mail armor with a two-handed sword and a crossbow! 100% against the rules. But I was 8, give me a bit of a break. We played almost every day during that summer and we loved every minute of it. In fact it pretty much help shape who I was. I am a D&D-phile. I am a fanatic. I love the idea of traipsing through a old moldy dungeon in search of wealth, fame, and adventure!

D&D was also a gateway for me to become a Gamer! HOODY HOO! I took to other RPG’s and Board Games with abandon. I organized a Gaming Club in Middle School…thanks a lot to my 6^th Grade Teacher Mr. Jaeger. We played a ton of old Avalon Hill Bookshelf games and a plethora of random RPG’s some cool some…well some we only played once.

But I kept coming back to D&D, when AD&D 2^nd edition came out I was over joyed! Things changed but I loved the change. I loved the upgrade as it were. Some things went away, but it felt like some things were made better. It was minor but I still fell completely in love with it.

So it was interesting when my best friend in high school and I started talking about D&D and his only experience to that date was OD&D (Original Dungeons & Dragons) well to put a more finer point on it The Basic, Expert, and Master edition released in 1983 by Frank Menzter. We talked and talked for days about what we loved about the game, our favorite characters and exploits in game up to that point. He was currently running a group of us through TSR’s Marvel Superheroes campaign. Its not the best game system, but we had a great time. So I said “Hell man run D&D, I am sure we can get a group together!” And we did…for 7 ½ years the adventures of the Riders Seven were all that filled our minds. 7 ½ years of playing D&D with the pretty much the same core group, and the same characters. It was an Epic feat…that will be hard to ever replicate. As the game wound down to its conclusion 3^rd Edition was on the Horizon.

And the game evolved. It was HUGE! A massive change…no more THAC0 (To Hit Armor Class Zero), this new mechanic of Feats, a new level of character customization that was just outta this world by comparison to older editions. I fell in love again! Well I never stopped loving D&D, we just went on a 2^nd Honeymoon. So with reckless abandon we threw ourselves into 3^rd Edition and sigh 3.5 (which I never really ever called it…it was still 3^rd edition to me with a few tweaks)

So 8 more years of D&D roll by and they announce 4^th Edition. And for the first time I feel trepidation about a new edition, I kinda groaned a bit. I thought it was gonna be a straight update of 3^rd and we would have 3.5 all over again. So I go to the Q&A session at GenCon ’07 and my fear begins to go away…and total excitement sets in. All the little nagging problems of 3^rd Edition start really making themselves known. I really start to find a mechanical dislike of 3^rd Edition. Plus I took stock of the power creep, ugh!

So I wait…and wait…reading little tid bit after tid bit of 4^th Edition. And Finally the books hit! HOODY FRIKEN HOO!!! I Love 4^th Edition! It was a REVOLUTION of the game.  It made broad sweeping changes, yet to me it still was D&D.  There is almost nothing about the new game that I dislike…and dislike is too strong of a word really. Sure I miss a few fluffy parts from older editions of the Monster Manuals, but I still own them so if I need to look up a fluffy part I can. So really what am I driving at with all this history and rambling?

I am a veteran player….just because I did not really start playing “hardcore” D&D until I was in my teens doesn’t really mean anything. I have still been playing for 25 years, and I have adapted and accepted each and every change they have made. I have continued to approach the game with the childlike glee that I had when I was 8 years old. So you see I have enjoyed the evolution of the game. Seeing it grow under different peoples visions. I love Gary and Dave for bringing this game to world…and I am proud to be apart of its rich history by being a player through the edition changes.

What I don’t understand really is that others who have played as long as I have or even longer can be so resistant to even try any of the new editions. We hear the age old argument ‘I play <insert edition here> Edition, and will never play any other edition. EVER!’. I myself fall into that category, like I said I really can’t see myself playing AD&D 2^nd Edition again. But to all those that haven’t played 3^rd or 4^th, to you I say ‘At least give it a try’…and if you don’t like it no problem. You still have the books at least your playing D&D! And for that we will always be brothers-in-arms of a sort.

All in all this had just been a stream of thought that really had no real direction, just that I don’t get the resistance to change or the unwillingness by many to try something new and different. And I know I pretty much never will.

I will end this with We all need to Keep Rolling them Dice! The world is really a better place if we do!

Oh and I LOVE 4th EDITION!

Overall its a pretty decent read.  I of course will have to delve deeper into it over the next few weeks and will be intrested to see how the new classes actually play in games.  I am glad I am one of the head RPGA DMs here in Denver so I will get to see a lot of diffrent combinations of Race/Class pairings.  And I will get to see the Classes optimized….cause thats what LFR players do…they basicly make thier characters the most dilineated version of thier class build as possible.  I’ve seen a 3rd Level Rogue with a +15 to hit with a Dagger…however they are usually paper thin and drop at the side long glance of a goblin but that is besides the point.

What I like:

Races

Deva (Pronouced DAY-vah):  So the entire new concept/re-imagining of the Aasimar is just super kick ass…Angels that chose to be Mortal to fight the good fight on the mortal world is too cool.  Fraken Awesome!

Gnomes: Well the Gnome Rogue is gonna be running rampant all over but for good reason, Fade Away and and Reactive Stealth are really pimp abilities.

Half-Orcs: Overall good retooling and re-imagining of this classic race…and and 100% less rape!

Shifters: While never my favorite race from Eberron they did a good job making them for 4th Edition.  Plus to diffrent racial builds is a neat Idea…wish they would have expanded upon that with some of the other races.

Classes

I have looked in depth at the Avenger and the Barbarian at the moment….but here are my thoughts on the two new Melee Strikers.

The Avenger: Is pimp! Like we are talking Gold-Chain-Crushed-Purple-Leisure-Suit-Wide-Brim-Hat-Wearing-Crystal-Topped-Cane-Weilding PIMP!  They are a mix of Batman and Nightcrawler with a dash of “Whose your Daddy!”  Pretty much my new favorite class.

The Barbarian: Made some improvement over the Playtest we’ve had for some time, plus we finally have the 2nd build the Thaneborn.  I see some seriously stupid power combos….but every single one usually leave the Barbarian worse off then when he started.

Feats

Again I have only really had time to dig into the Heroic Feats.  Most deal with the new classes and races.  A few are general and seem like a needed addition (However I am not a fan of imposing automatic feat choices aka 3.5 Combat Casting was a must for all spell casters)

The few that stand out at decent feats:

Melee Training, Speed Loaders, Combat Medic, Distance Advantage are all good.  I will have to really look deeper into the feats.

So far that is about all I have been able to digest.

A few days from now I will give you more on my thoughts and feelings.

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