The following day I researched Terraclips online, including watching their videos and reading their forums. By the time my husband got home from work I was feeling like giving them a try. I showed the same videos to him and he was also impressed. The next day we swooped up a lucky catch: all three available sets at our local game store!

Unboxing
If you plan on buying some of these – do watch the videos. They are full of truth. I’ll repeat one thing they say for emphasis: the clips do not come in the tile boxes. You have to purchase them separately. The videos recommend purchasing one box of clips per box of tiles – which is what I did. Now I’m going to make my own recommendation: think first, then buy.  If you’re going to use your Terraclip tiles to make small encounter-sized maps for your groups then you can probably get away with one box even if you get two or three tile sets.  If you’re planning on using more tiles, making medium to large layouts, possibly sprawling complexes covering your table, then yes a box of clips per tile box is appropriate.

It took me nearly 45 minutes to finish unboxing my first set (and I haven’t had the energy to sit down and unbox the other two yet!). I’m not going to give an exhaustive list – you can get that on the website. Besides a generous supply of floor, wall, and roof tiles, the set includes four stair sets: three 2” stairs and one 4” stair. It also included three ladders. I noticed the ladders had interesting notches on each rung and realised they were intentional – you can seat a mini on one of the rungs and it won’t fall off! Genius!

The box is large and hefty. Inside the Buildings box was 16 sheets of die-cut cardstock. The cardstock is about as thick as D&D tiles, but feels a little bit denser to me. The die-cutting is excellent and they clearly tried to use as much space as possible, filling even archways and nooks with extra tokens and bits. The cuts are clean and the pieces pop out easily but you do still need to pay attention to any tile with small cuts – like the doors and the ladders – where the paper can tear. I did slightly tear the printed layer on one door when I carelessly tugged it the wrong way.

The artwork is top-notch. In the Buildings box you get a mix of wooden and stone floors, a mix of wood & plaster walls and stone walls, and clay versus wood roofing tiles. There is an excellent level of attention to detail on every tile. These aren’t simply shaped tiles with generic textures slapped onto them. Each tile has something unique about it. Walls have drapes, half-melted candles, cracked plaster, shutters, etc. Floors have different planking or stone work, mold, occasional rugs scattered about, trap doors are placed suggestively but are also subtle enough you can effectively ignore them if appropriate. The color palate is consistent and seems to match well with the other two sets – I can see using all three sets on the same layout and not have that jarring effect you sometimes get with D&D tiles from different series.

Storage
The box is ideal for storage. A single baggie holds all my tiny pieces, the rest stack up neatly in the box. Note: the ladders have very snug slots and you may want to leave them assembled instead of risking tearing them by disassembling and reassembling them. Thankfully, the box is just high enough you can lay the ladders down inside the box and close it without crushing the ladders. The stairs are easily dissembled without problem and stored flat. The clips are already loose and require no prep – open box and pour out. I’m storing mine in their boxes as-is because boxes stay neatly on my shelf versus bags or a different storage bin.

Assembling
All the tiles have small notches on them. They might seem intrusive, but once things are in place you won’t even notice them. The plastic clips are designed to bring the edges of the tiles together snugly. The clips themselves are also more unassuming than you’d think. On the walls you really won’t be bothered by them, and on floors they’re only slightly intrusive – they did not prevent our minis from occupying the same squares but they are *there* and that might bother some people.

The clips grip tiles quite strongly, in fact removing tiles was sometimes more difficult than placing them. Still, the result is a structure that is surprisingly not flimsy at all. I built a house I could throw across the room – it bounced off the wall and landed on the floor without bending. (Note: I don’t recommend doing this, it was an experiment!)

The videos recommend having a plan before you sit down to build. This is sound advice. With my D&D tiles I can sit down and tool around with tiles until something strikes me. The D&D 3D tiles are few in number and are basically simple accents to your 2D map. The Terraclip tiles are specifically 3D tiles with a handful of foundation tiles. Because you don’t  have an infinite amount of tiles you have to think about what you want to build. Other than that, its really just as simple as Legos – think of what you want to put here, find piece, clip into place.

One really fun aspect of the Terraclips is the stacking. The clips have small ridges in them so that when you build up levels, you don’t actually clip the levels together. The ridges rest naturally on the top edges of wall tiles, making it sturdy enough to stand on its own but as easy to lift off as a lid on a pot. Unstack to access every inch of your map without interrupting your game.

Feel free to experiment: I took a piece of railing that would normally be placed vertically on the edge of a balcony and instead placed it horizontally along a wall to create a narrow shelf. My friend used the clips to combine Terraclip tiles with D&D tiles to create a larger network of catwalks over a sewer system. The clips will grip D&D tiles, although the result is not as neat looking as the Terraclip tiles because D&D tiles do not have the built-in notch that makes the joints look smooth and evenly joined. Heavy usage might damage the D&D tiles, so be careful when applying and removing clips.

Price
Terraclips tiles were $49 each at my local store, and $18 per box of clips – making that an investment of $67 just for one working set. On one hand, yes that’s a bit pricey, but on the other hand you do not get ripped-off for dropping big bucks on the set – you’re given an ample amount of quality product for your purchase. Now if your group spends very little time in an urban setting then of course you’ll want to skip these. If you’ve never in your life enjoyed Legos or some other adolescent building toy, then you’ll also want to skip these.

Recommendation
If you liked D&D 3D tiles but feel they were a little underwhelming, if you use regular tiles or poster maps but wish they were more immersive, or if you simply enjoy any sort of 3D terrain I recommend you give these a try. I highly recommend them if your group enjoys rich urban settings and you could see yourself making their favorite inn, the local mansion, or ambush alley. If you’re positive you’ll build entire layouts of streets, sewers, and buildings: for DMs like you it may be worth it to get two or more sets.

Terraclips Website

TheSheDM.com

Organization

One of the greatest things about Goodreader is its ability to serve as an archival solution for your gaming pdf’s.  It has the capacity to create folders, rename them, and move things around from folder to folder with just a few swipes of your fingers.

Goodreader's directory view

So as you can see, I have a few folders there, one related for work and one for rpg’s.  A touch of the rpg folder will then take me inside it, to reveal the rest of my stuff:

Inside the folder... more folders

So as you can see, storing your stuff within the app is easy and you can keep things nice and organized.  Everything can be renamed to whatever you want too, and it even handles zip files.

Reader

When you open a pdf in the Safari web browser on the ipad, it gives you the option to open it in Goodreader, which then adds it to the apps directory structure.  Once opened in GR, you need to rename the file, as it assigns it a name made up of random letters and numbers.  I haven’t figured that out yet.  Why does it do that?

As strictly a reader, Goodreader does everything you would expect it to do, and perhaps a bit more.  Flipping the page is easy, a simple tap on the right side of the screen does that.  Tapping the screen with three fingers brings up the menu, which allows you to access the bookmarks, search, or create markups.  Markups are perhaps the coolest thing about Goodreader, and a feature that I’ve used quite a bit as a DM.  When you markup a PDF, the program creates a duplicate copy, an “Annotated Copy” it calls it, so you are never really writing on your original file.

Markup your pdf however you want

On a pdf you can add bookmarks, highlite text, write on it yourself directly (with a stylus or finger), or type on it.  You can also create basic shapes on the pdf (for example if you want to circle text or something).  The great thing is that you are never really defacing your original file, only a copy.

What if you annotate your pdf so much that you forgot all the notes that you’ve made?  That’s fine, because Goodreader can tell you where and what they are:

A listing of all the annotations I've made on this pdf

I’ve used the annotations feature to mark where I’ve left off in an adventure, for highliting important text, or to make a note that I need to add an enemy to an encounter or something similar.  It’s a great feature, and I’ve used it quite a bit.  You can always delete anything you’ve added, re-write it, change the sizes, all with the tap of a finger.  And remember, you are writing on a duplicate, not the original.

DM Prep Tool

I found a cool use for the app as I was prepping for my Dragon Age game here at home.  I like having monster stats printed out, and found that Goodreader aided me tremendously.  By pinching and zooming in on a statblock, then taking a snapshot of the screen (home button and the top power button pressed together) I created printable stat blocks.  I simply emailed the pictures to myself and printed them out with Windows’ picture printer as 2 5×7 images.  Easy and effective for what I needed.  I like having paper statblocks for my encounters so I can track HP easier for example.  I’m not 100% fully digital just yet.

The statblocks, printed out

So as you can see, Goodreader can be a powerful tool in your DMing arsenal as you transition from an analog DM to a digital one.  If you know of any other tools similar to this one please share with us in the comments below.

If you would like to support NewbieDM.com, perhaps you’d consider visiting Amazon.com for your next rpg related purchase. Check out the following products:

Chessex Role Playing Play Mat: Battlemat Double-Sided Reversible Mat for RPGs and Miniature Figure Games (26 in x 23 1/2 in) Squares/Hexes

Dungeon Tiles Master Set – The City: An Essential Dungeons & Dragons Accessory (4th Edition D&D)

The Witchlight Fens – Dungeon Tiles: A 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons Accessory (4th Edition D&D)

Thank You!

I’m going to start the series off with an app that has quickly become a favorite of mine, Index Cards.  Index cards use in writing is a tried and true trick of the screenwriting trade.  On the cards you can lay out your scenes and arrange them in order, swap scenes around, etc., in a way that makes sense for your story.  So why not take that to the gaming table as well?

An screenplay index card layout (image via: complicationsensue.blogspot.com)

I’m going to create a simple adventure, and show you how the index card app may help you in the process of creating your own.

So the app starts you off with a corkboard, much like what you may use in real life to pin notecards on:

So lets look at how you can keep track of your NPC’s with it.  You can even create “stacks” of similar cards:

Our first stack, Important NPC's

Each card in the stack is an NPC, with a flavorful description on one side, and game stats on the other.

An index card describing an NPC

You can also include game hooks within the NPC description.  Find the dwarf’s lost sword is a good one.

Or better yet… create another stack with minor quests…

Now we're building a little collection of elements.

So for the actual adventure, perhaps we come up with encounter cards, or scene cards, and that’s the bulk of the story.

The Encounters/Scenes stack is now part of the project.

Inside the stack, we have different types of cards.  I chose the following for this example:  Combat Encounter, Roleplay Encounter, and Exploration Encounter as these are the three types of encounters in Dragon Age, the game I currently play.  You can color code the cards, so I assigned a different color to each type of encounter card.

Color coded cards can help you keep track of each type of encounter.

So what I’ve been toying with is using the app to then build an outline of my story, because the app lets you move the cards around and place them in any order you want. I duplicated the encounter cards and removed the duplicates from the stack, that’s why the stack and the cards are both on screen at the same time….

This is where you'd start building your sequence of events...

Now keep in mind that you can also transfer cards to other projects, so for example, the Minor Quests can be transferred over as drop-ins to another adventure, as well as NPC’s, or anything else you have.  After everything is done, one of the options you have is to transfer the whole thing via email as an RTF text file.  It won’t be formatted as an adventure exactly, but it is a good outline for when you sit to write one.  Also, you can, if you are detailed enough, include enough info in the index cards that you can in fact just run right from the app or the outline.  Another option has is to share the project via dropbox, which could be very useful as well.

Here’s the outline in RTF form for this small project.  I had to convert it to a PDF to upload it.  It does not export to PDF on its own.

Sample Adv. The Red Dragon _1

So there you have it.  I feel that this app would be a good one for you Ipad owning Dm’s out there looking for writing or story aids.  Screenwriters use this method a lot, I can’t see why transferring it to the gaming table wouldn’t be as useful.  At best, it can help you build a coherent story, and at worst it can help you build a nice library of elements you can use in your games such as minor hooks and npc’s.

Here is the Faq page from the app developers.

What do you guys think? Do you think this would be useful? Can you recommend any other writing apps for the series?

I originally posted this article and the accompanying sheets over at the Dragon Age Oracle blog, but wanted to bring them over here as well.  I hope someone gets some use out of them, and enjoys their old school look and flavor.

I recently got my hands on the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master’s Design Kit, which comes loaded with advice on building adventures, chases and scenes.  It also comes with a ton of useful handouts, specific to AD&D.  I found it to be a great tool, even now so many years later, as the advice it gives is universal.

I liked the handouts so much, that I thought it would be cool to create some for the Dragon Age game, since it’s such an old-school flavored game anyway.  I made them to sort of look like handouts from the era of the Design Kit, but I think they are useful regardless of how they look.

The sheets are meant to help plan encounters, adventures and NPCs.  I made them primarily for new GM’s who may be playing RPGs for the first time, as sheets that they could keep in their binder or folder.

Get them here:  Dragon Age GM Sheets

If you’d like an aerial grid to add an extra dimension of combat to your next game you can make one with a little time and a few supplies. Make a visit to your local craft store, although you might want to swing by the hardware store depending on what materials you want. Your basic shopping list is:

1. Glass or plexi of the size you want
2. Glue or epoxy
3. Sandpaper, medium grit
4. Pillars for support
5. A straight edge for lines and measuring
6. Permanent marker

Raw Materials

If you want to work with glass, cheap picture frames like this one come in all shapes an sizes. I bought a 12×12 and disposed of the plastic frame for my first attempt at an aerial grid. Glass is heavy but weighs down the piece very well – keeps it from being easily budged or tipped on the table. On the downside, I worried constantly about dropping it during transport. Your alternative material is plexi: available at your local hardware store. I bought two sheets of 11″x14″ Lexan acrylic polycarbonate for my second attempt: a double-decker aerial grid.

My recommendation: Glass is cheap, plentiful, and looks nicer – if you game at home and handle with care – use it. If you travel to another location to game then plexi is the better choice. It’s lightweight, flexible, and can handle a beating.

Glue! I picked this brand with a nifty brush to avoid adhering my fingers together like I usually do. Epoxy or hot glue would probably work too, but I have not tried them, Experiment at your own risk, that being said…

My recommendation: Crazy glue is brittle and doesn’t flex well. If you’re working with glass that’s fine, and it will work with plexi if you’re not manhandling the deck all the time. You may want to try a more flexible glue if you use plexi and anticipate the finished piece will receive rough handling.

For my pillar supports I found an excellent selection of cake pillars at the craft store – they had a wide assortment. Plain white plastic ones were very cheap and could have been painted black or other colors. I ended up selecting this set of 6 pillars because they were square shaped and looked sturdy.

Even better, they break down into separate components. The end caps of each pillar pops off and the pillar itself is hollow. They’re super lightweight and clear so they’ll be unobtrusive on the clear glass/plexi grid.

My recommendation: If you’re playing at home then solid pillars like the plain cake pillars or even wooden dowels are fine. If you travel, you’ll benefit from pillars like these that can be removed and put back on for easy storage and assembly.

I needed a grid for combat of course, so I cheated and laid out my vinyl mat as a guide. I used permanent marker and a ruler to keep the lines neat and straight and worked left-to-right so my hand didn’t smear ink as you move across the glass or plexi.

Here you can see I’ve set the end caps for the pillars on the grid. If you are using solid pillars, you’ll have your pillars set out at each corner. Sandpaper is useful here to give texture for the glue to grip. Just give the glass/plexi a gentle rub to scratch the surface. Also rub the contact end of your pillar. The glue will bond better this way and your pillars are less likely to fall off mid-game (like mine did!). Use canned air or just fan away the fine dust before you glue so that it doesn’t obstruct the glue from bonding with the surfaces. Set the whole thing aside to dry for several hours so the glue can set firmly.

All done! You can repeat the steps to create a double-deck aerial grid…

The finished product is amazingly sturdy. Since the pillars pop out easily, I was able to pack this up and store it inside a padded bag. My players never even knew I had it until I pulled it out, popped the pieces together in five seconds, and set it on the table. Unlike the glass, plexi will flex slightly when you’re wrestling with popping the columns into place, but thanks to the sanding work done, the supports stay firmly glued in place.

I was contacted by a reader named Michael, who offered to write a guest post about the way he handles recaps in his game.  I had written about recaps before, but his way was a lot more creative than mine.  He actually created an in-universe prop for his players.  I found it interesting and offered to publish it here for readers of newbiedm.com. You can reach Michael at Alive30@aol.com or @Alive30 on Twitter.  Enjoy.

“Where Did We Leave Off?” Another Tool to Enhance The Game Recap

I’ve benefited immensely from various suggestions, tips and ideas from this site and others. I’ve spent hours creating a world, developing story hooks, building encounters and making props to interest the players. It’s an enjoyable process, but it’s time consuming! And returning to the table every other week and needing to remind players about the story and world I’ve spent so much time cultivating can be frustrating.

One of the more challenging aspects of running a campaign is maintaining a sense of momentum. In our group, we play every other Friday. However, if we have to skip a week for whatever conflict in the schedule, then we could go a month or perhaps longer without a gaming session. Even if the schedule runs smoothly, a common question from the players at the beginning of each session is, “So, what is going on again?”

A previous article detailed numerous methods for providing the players with a game recap.   I have flirted with many of the ideas presented in article, including starting a website for our campaign on Obsidian Portal.  I soon became overwhelmed with Obsidian Portal; I’m sure it’s a fine tool, but I do not possess the time or motivation to maintain a website that my players may only occasionally visit in the first place. One of the players generously offered to keep a journal from his character’s perspective, which was a great idea. But it was not something he could sustain because it took up too much time. Also, when he did complete and bring it to the next gaming session, the players would pass around the journal to read when they arrived, which took away valuable game time.

With all this in mind, I had the pleasure of welcoming two new players into the group to start the new year. Our 4e campaign has progressed from Level 1 to Level 9. During that time, there have been many quests and NPCs that have built a backbone for the world. It was unclear to me how I would inform the new players of all the important details without (a) writing a huge document to detail the story thus far and (b) boring them to death!

The following idea is something that can help you introduce new players to your campaign, manage The Game Recap problem, and also spice up your entire campaign. I give you the Fake Newsletter.

First, a bit of background on this idea. While in graduate school, I lived with three other guys and once had the idea to write a fake newsletter about the happenings in the apartment. I borrowed heavily from The Onion, and created a four-page newsletter that poked fun at my roommates, myself, and other people we knew. It went over very well, and I had a blast putting it together. It eventually inspired my roommate to write a similar newsletter months later, and we took turns every few months creating a new issue.

So, when trying to determine the best way to educate new players about the campaign, it dawned on me that I could create a fake newsletter for the world I created, Cydonia. The campaign thus far has primarily been rooted in the port town of Poormina, so I started to generate ideas to create an issue of the Poormina newspaper, Poormina Times.

An advertisement from the newsletter. Now the PC's know what inn to go to.

My primary goal with the paper was to introduce the new players (and remind the current players) of important events and NPCs in the campaign. The second goal was to write it so that it was entertaining and fun. A third goal, which came to me after I started the process, was to plant seeds for future story hooks in the campaign.

Please take a look at the finished product, which was generated using Microsoft Publisher and then saved as a PDF file. I realize the names and events mentioned will not make any sense to you because you’re not involved in the campaign, but it provides an example of a finished product. If you do have Publisher, then you can follow the instructions to navigate to the “Vintage” template that already exists. The Vintage template seemed to be the best fit for me in terms of “looking old” and having the right style. The good thing about the template is that most of the formatting work is already in place for you; you just have to write your news stories and swap out the images for something more appropriate. For most of the images, I did a simple Google Image search and scrolled through pictures until I found something I liked. I commissioned a good friend, Grant Gould, to illustrate two of the character images; Wiklund on the front page and Brother Laurence on Page 3. His art is amazing, and I encourage everyone to check out his site at www.grantgould.com.

If you do not want to start from scratch, then you can start with my Poormina Times file from MS Publisher and change the text and images to match your campaign. If you do not have access to MS Publisher, then you could use a Word, PowerPoint, or any other program to achieve the same goal. Now that you have the fake newsletter idea and a means for writing it, here are some suggestions for how to craft the newsletter.

First, decide who you want the party to be most aware of in your world. For me, there are many villains, but the overarching nemesis is Wiklund, a doppelganger who has been confronted by the party twice but slipped away both times. He has not been featured in the campaign recently, but introducing the character to new players (and reminding the current players of his presence) was important. So the main story focused on the doppelganger threat in the kingdom.

After highlighting the primary villain, I wanted to introduce three of the most-prominent NPCs that have assisted the party throughout the campaign. The NPCs in my campaign that have interacted the most with the party are: Brother Laurence, retired battle cleric from a religious/military order; Dorwin Farringwray, opportunistic rogue and scoundrel; and Hornan Dawntracker, captain of the local town guard. Once I decided on the most crucial NPCs, I wrote a story for each of them.

For the rest of the stories in the newsletter, I detailed the current quest for the party, which is stopping a relentless assault from pirates. Another article introduced a future story hook regarding problems in the sewers underneath the city. I used a brief article to discuss the current happenings of two major players in the world that the party has heard of, but not interacted with yet – the king, Tougard VI, and his most-trusted religious advisor, High Priest Adamar. I used the Advertisement spot on Page 4 to highlight another NPC, Zannan, who has assisted the party in the past.  And the final article was more inspired from various political commentary and editorials.

For the final article on Page 4, I wrote an editorial decrying the party from the perspective of someone that questions the adventurer’s methods and goals. Think Stephen Colbert or Bill O’Reilly. This was by far the most fun piece to write, because I knew it would get under the skin of my current players. And did it ever!

After completing the newsletter, I sent the PDF file to my current and new players several days before our next gaming session. A lively discussion ensued through email about the articles in the newsletter, with the commentary article on Page 4 drawing the most attention. Our wizard now wants to track down the writer and confront him; he sent this message to the group, “Notice how the author of the article didn’t put his name there? I call Shifter Propaganda! Next stop, flyer establishment, and beating the crap out of the editor! It’s made of paper, it’ll BURN!!!!”

Perhaps after the pirate ordeal, the party could deal with the writer – who could turn out to be a doppelganger himself or somehow spur another quest in the campaign. Let your players respond to the newsletter and see what fun directions it could take you!

Some final points:

• Obviously, I have lifted various ideas from movies, television, books, and websites. Two clear examples are the names Farringwray and Adamar, which were stolen from the Penny Arcade podcasts and the film, A Knight’s Tale, respectively. I encourage you to borrow ideas from any source you deem worthy. My only caution is that my players have caught on to this as they are familiar with the same references. If you want to use a character from a movie, novel, etc. that has a specific story arc, then perhaps shy away from giving him or her the exact same name. For example, the party is not going to be surprised if the politician, Palpatine, turns out to be an evil wizard!
• I do not plan to generate this type of newsletter in between each session; I simply do not have the time for that! However, I will likely use this newsletter format from time to time to keep things interesting. I suggest you avoid anything that feels like busy work for your campaign. The main goal is to have fun and enjoy the time with friends. If an occasional Recap assists and is fun to create, then this is one method to achieve that end.
• Raid The Onion and other news outlets (e.g., print, online, television) for story and formatting templates. If you still receive a newspaper (local, campus, etc.), page through that and get ideas for how to bend those stories to your campaign.
• Last, I’m familiar with MS Publisher so generating this file only took a couple of days. You can reduce the preparation time by cutting it down to just one or two pages. I attached the file so you can easily write your own material over the format provided.  I would be happy to answer any questions, and would certainly enjoy viewing newsletters that you create for your campaign.

Poormina Times (The actual newsletter pdf)

The publisher file

While the original one they promised was set to feature a 3d battle grid, virtual minis of monsters and pc’s, and lighting effects, the current offering is much more subtle.  If you are familiar with the Maptools program, or Gametable, you’ll instantly notice the direction WOTC has chosen to go with their Virtual Table program, which runs off Java and is currently in beta testing.

As you can see, it’s very similar to the offerings from the community built tables, and my guess is that Wizards will have to do some major customizing to make it a product worth paying for.  By that I mean that the day it works with the monster and character builder, and Wizards integrates it with perhaps Dungeon magazine to make its maps and adventures available for it, it will be a very attractive product for a 4e DM.

So what does the table have?  Lets see:

• An initiative tracker.  It’s very simple, you add characters and monsters to it, and the thing tracks the initiative for you.  I didn’t give it a robust test, so I don’t know if it tracks conditions and their durations unfortunately.  I know that those things are a big deal for many DM’s.
• A map maker.  It looks like Dungeon tiles will be a main part of the setup here, and that part of the program works great.  you build your maps, save it, and then work on another one, and so on.  The tiles selection is small during the beta test, but I have no doubt that it will one day include all the sets.
• Monster tokens.  You can assign tokens to the monsters.  Right now, it is a small selection, but I imagine it to include all the monsters in the game one day.  It uses the art from the Monster Vault tokens from what I can tell.
• Journal.  There’s some kind of journal option that honestly I didn’t play with.  Imagine it as a place for campaign notes and such.
• Integrated voice chat.  While other table top programs require a third party to include voice chat, this one has it built it.  it also includes voice filters to disguise your voice when role playing. Think orc, male to female voice, and things like that and you get the idea.
• Text chat.  There’s a text chat built in as well that includes the capability to whisper privately to other players if you want.
• Dice Roller. A simple dice roller that allows single or multiple types of dice to be rolled.

I had the opportunity to roll a very quick encounter with the program, and found it relatively easy to use.  I’d like it if double clicking on the tokens gave me their stats and powers, rather than all the clicking I have to do, but that’s a minor gripe.  Also, our voice connection was a little wonky and settled for text chat instead.

The map making is simple and works like it’s supposed to.  I’d like to see all the tiles sets there and perhaps even adventure poster maps.  I foresee a future where adventures come with a download link for the virtual table files for online use.

Admittedly, I haven’t given this thing a proper run though, but I will.  I wanted to throw this out there for those of you that haven’t heard the news that this was coming.  While it’s not the fancy 3d table that was promised, I have some experience with the programs that this is basing itself on, and they work really well for online D&D, so If they get this right and add all the 4e stuff that will make it stand out from the free competitors, it should be a hit.  On that note, no pricing talk has started yet, so we don’t know if this will be part of the DDI subscription, or a separate thing.  We shall see.

But yes Virginia, Wizards’ does have a virtual table in beta test this Christmas.

Monster Vault

Wizards of the Coast seems to be on a box set kick lately, as the Essentials tiles, the Starter Kit, Monster Vault, and DM’s Kit are all packaged in boxes.  That’s not a bad thing, as I’m a huge fan of D&D boxed sets.  The Monster Vault boxed set contains the following:

Monster Vault book – a 6×9, 320 page digest containing information on all the monsters in the book.  There are 63 monsters in the book, along with 9 animals.  All of these, of course, contain multiple variants and level ranges for each creature, leading to a wide assortment of enemies to throw at an adventuring party.  Let’s break down the level ranges of the creatures included:  There are 175 Heroic Tier creatures, 117 creatures for the Paragon Tier, and 12 in the Epic, with the highest being of level 27.

The list of included monsters

As you can see, there are  a very small amount of offerings for DM’s running Epic Tier games.  Why this decision was taken, I’m not sure, but I can speculate and assume that they concentrated on the more iconic creatures in the D&D universe.  There are tons of orcs, beholders, giants, titans, and dragons to keep a party busy for a long time.

The Monster Vault book. Watch out for the Owlbear!

Now, much has been said about the revisions that this book has made to solos and they way they play at the table, and yes, they have changed dramatically.  Now, thankfully solos aren’t creatures that will sit there and take a beating from parties that stun and daze them.  They have abilities to shake those conditions off and be as deadly as the equivalent of 5 creatures are really supposed to be.  Good change, and one that many DM’s have been asking for a long time.

The other thing worth noting here is the amount of fluff that the monsters get.  Gone are the DC checks for character knowledge, and gone are also the encounter groups.  Now the DM gets an almost encyclopedic entry of the creature, and I guess it’s up to each of us to determine how much the player characters know about a creature.  There are a lot of story elements to these creatures, and there is plenty of stuff that the players can, and cannot know.  I wish there was a bit of an instruction about how much and what to divulge to players that may ask “what do we know?”, but the DM’s judgment will be the key here.  In a way, it’s something I’ve been asking for in conversations with other players regarding putting some power back in the DM’s hand, instead of there being a mechanical (rules) way to solve a problem, so I see it as a good thing.

This book will replace my Monster Manual.  Sigh… another book that will never see the light of day again.

Another great thing about this book, and one that I hope the Monster Builder (DDI) adopts is the picture of the monster embedded unto the stat block.  In fact, the picture corresponds to the token of the creature included in the Monster Vault.  Did someone say tokens?  Yes I did.

Every stat block has a token image associated with it.

Token Sheets - Did you know that I love tokens?  I have loved tokens since before it was fashionable to love tokens.  I’ve loved double sided, bloody on the opposite side tokens since before it was the kewl thing to suddenly love. But we’re not here to talk about that, we’re here to talk about the included tokens in this box.  And there are a lot!

There are ten sheets of tokens, only labeled with a number on the side so you can choose to have them represent whatever you want.  The tokens are made of cardboard, and coated with a nice gloss that makes them seem very durable.  The sizes range from medium (1″) to huge (3″), and they also include five rings that you can place large creature tokens in to make it a huge sized creature.  it is a neat idea, and allows a greater flexibility of the large tokens.

One thing I found completely unnecessary was the inclusion of black tokens simply labeled “minion”.  I’m not sure, but I gather that there are several DM’s out there who would rather let their party discover that they are fighting minions in a more organic way than having a token spell it out, but that’s just me.  I could have done without that.  Give me environmental elements instead, like maybe fire tokens, or ice ones.

Two pages of tokens.

Now you might be wondering what the best way to store all these tokens is, and I have a solution that I use here at home.  I went on Ebay and purchased coin collector tubes, they are made of plastic, and they are perfect for medium sized tokens.  Check this video out, sorry it’s a little blurry:

But what good are tokens if you don’t have an adventure to run them with?  Well, the Monster Vault includes one, along with a double sided battlemap.

Cairn of the Winter King- The adventure is set in the town of Fallcrest, a location that most 4e players should be familiar with by now.  It involves the party having to stop the threat of endless winter plaguing the land, and it is mostly a dungeon crawl, but it is not a bad or boring one.  In fact, if you are the type of DM that enjoys hamming it up, this adventure may be right up your alley, as it has a few moments of npc interactions that will require that the DM take up several different personalities and voices.  It really seems like a neat adventure in the low to mid heroic tier range, and I plan to run it sooner rather than later.

The accompanying battlemap is no big deal, it has a dungeon on one side, and a village coated in snow on the other.  To me the map looks like a slightly modified reprint of the map that came with the Drizzt and the white dragon miniatures set.

So the question is, should you drop 30 bucks on what is in essence a retconned set of monster manuals and a buttload of  tokens?  My answer is yes.  The tokens and the redone solos are a great addition, but the inclusion of story elements and an adventure seal the deal for me.  I do recommend the Monster Vault, even if you are a DDI subscriber like me.

Dungeon Tiles Master Set:  The City

I’m a little conflicted about how I feel about this set.  One the one hand, I’m really glad we just weren’t sold a bunch of reprints of previous sets, and are getting mostly original artwork; having said that, I think the set is missing a bit of “the city” that the box set claims to be.  I think perhaps I would have liked a bit more rooftop tiles and that sort of thing.  Lets take a look at what’s inside.

As with The Dungeon Master Set, these tiles also come in a box that double as tiles as well.  It is on this box in fact, that we get the only rooftops of the set.

Roofs, each set separated by an alley.

Now look at the edge of the box… why are there dungeon walls there, and columns?  Couldn’t they have drawn out the sides of buildings or something. It would have been odd, given the 2d nature of the tiles, but perhaps something closer to the images on the tiles would have been better.  Those dungeon columns are doing nothing for me.  And I would have gone with a street, rather than an alley in at least one of the boxes.

So rather than describe each tile, I’ll just show you a group picture of both sides…

Sewers and building interiors...

Water, docks, and streets...

So while, yeah, there are cool tiles in this set, and certainly docks and sewers count as city stuff, I still would have liked more rooftops and that sort of thing to create those stealthy and shadowy types of encounters with.  And WOTC, if you are going to give use water tiles, stop being stingy and give us ships already.  And another thing, unfurnished buildings are not my thing.

Give me interesting locales, not empty shells.

So… Is it worth your $19.99?  Only you can decide that.  I find that I will still need to snag a copy of the now out of print “Streets of Shadows” set to fill my needs, but you may not.  I like the set, but I would have liked a bit more.

Dungeon Master’s Kit

Now we get to the product that may interest most readers of this blog, The Dungeon Master’s Kit.  And my verdict?  If you are an experienced DM, this is only worth getting for the included adventure and maps, the updated DM screen (flimsier than the original 4e one), and the tokens.

The DMing book included is mostly reprinted material from other Essentials products, and if you are an experienced 4e DM, there’s little for you here.  If you aren’t, and own the Rules Compendium and the Heroes of… books, you’re likely to see much of the same material.

So lets look at the other stuff that’s included…  First the tokens…  You get three sheets of tokens (one of them is all for PC’s), made of the same nice and glossy material that the Monster Vault ones are made out of.  You also get horse tokens and some pit trap tokens.

DM's Kit tokens.

The Dungeon Master Screen is made of a less sturdy material than the original 4e screen, features the same artwork, and updated info.  I prefer the sturdiness of my original screen to be honest, and some scanning and pasting over my original one may be in order.  This thing looks like a blast of the AC would knock it over.  I don’t like it too much.

Now the adventure, “Reavers of Harkenwold”.  The adventure is split into two 32 page books.  Why that is, I don’t know. Is it cheaper to print two 32 page books than one 64 page one?  Perhaps. I can’t say.  The adventure encompasses levels 2-4, and places the adventurers in the roles of rebels against an oppressive mercenary force that has taken over the land.

It’s worth noting that the majority of the encounter maps are included in the two fold out maps packaged in the box.  A welcome addition and a handy thing for a newbie DM who may be running this for his or her party.  And these maps are pretty reusable too, with nice artwork of farms and house interiors.

One side of the poster maps...

...and the other side.

So yeah, the adventure looks pretty damn good from an experienced DM’s viewpoint.  There seems to be plenty of roleplay, decision making, and non linear fun to make it a wonderfully different experience from other published adventures in the past.

So again, is it worth your hard earned $39.99?  The DM’ing stuff in the book is a bunch of reprinted information.  Too much for my tastes.  So if you don’t need the book, you have to ask yourself if 3 sheets of tokens, an updated DM screen and 64 pages of adventure with a pair of poster maps is worth the money.  Your call.

So now I own every Essentials product except the upcoming Heroes book and the Wilderness tiles.  Do I like the line?  Yes, I do.  I had a chance to run an all Essentials game the other day and it is 4e, no more, no less.  This talk of 4.5 is silly, plain and simple.  One thing that stands out to me though is that the line seems to live in a separate universe from 4e, and the books are written as though nothing else has come before them.  I find that a little weird and sad.  It gives me the impression that WOTC would like to pretend that those early books like the PHB1 and MM1 never happened.  Perhaps I’m wrong, but that’s the impression I get.

I hope this review helps you out in making a decision about what to do with your cash.

If you are a new DM in particular, this may be of some use for you.

1.  The token tutorial. This is probably the article that put the blog out there and exposed it to a larger audience than just the RPG Bloggers Network was giving me at the time.

2.  The “scale your maps up and print them” tutorial. It was just a natural follow up to the tokens that had to be done.

3.   Advice for new DM’s only. At the time it was some stuff I had learned about DM’ing, and wanted to share it with other new Dm’s out there.  It still holds up.

4.  Battlemap Tutorial by Jonathan Roberts.  One of my favorite tutorials on the site, by a great artist and all-around good guy.  He’s a working cartographer who had no reason to do this, but he did, and I’m grateful for that.

5.  Reskinning advice.  Really shows new DM’s just how easy it is to bend the game to your particular needs.  I’m quite proud of the way I turned a drow into a dinosaur, if I do say so myself.

6.  Making your own Dungeon Tiles. A great guest post by a reader of the blog.  It is what it is, making your own Dungeon Tiles.  A great article.

7.  Don’t make your PC’s ride the Newbie Railroad. Aaaall Aboooard!!  My thoughts on how new DM’s can think on their feet and avoid railroading their players.  This article is, for some reason, a big StumbleUpon traffic driver.

8.  The DM binder. A nice post on introducing new DM’s to the concept of a campaign “bible”.

9.  Adding a 3d element to Dungeon Tiles. I wrote this small article as I was experimenting with making Dungeon Tiles more versatile.  Maybe someone at Wizards was reading, and that led to their current 3d tiles stuff?  Nah. Not likely.

10.  3 Act Structure in your games. A more recent article, but one that I am really proud of, as I was able to combine my two favorite hobbies:  gaming and screenwriting.

I’m sure there are some I’m missing, but those are the ones that stand out the most in my mind.  I hope if you are new to the site you read those, and they help you out in some way.

I’ve never been the type of blogger that throws traffic numbers around, but today I’ll make an exception and throw out the top 10 articles or pages (per WordPress stats) and their views:

1. Counter, Tokens or Pogs Tutorial – 14,392

2.  Newbie Railroad – 12,831

3.  Printing maps to scale – 9441

4.  Masterplan:  Software for the 4th Ed. DM – 8365

5.  “Downloads” page – 7226

6.   Battlemap guest tutorial – 7146

7.  Battlemap guest tutorial part 2 – 7146

8. Making Dungeon Tiles guest tutorial – 6502

9. “Tutorials” page – 6061

10. Improved Initiative D&D Combat Manager – 4274

And lastly, I wanted to take the time to talk a bit about rpgKids, the rpg for little ones I recently self published. That game’s success would not have been possible without a bit of help from the fact that I had a blog to highlight it with, and the readers to download it and apparently enjoy it.  So a big thanks go out to you readers that played it when it first came out as a free download last year, and a huge thanks to those of you that have bought the new version.  I hope it is enjoyable to you and your kids.

So that’s the 300th post.  Thanks for reading and hope to see you around for the next 300!

Damn.  That’s a lofty goal.

This is the second set I offer for download, earlier this year I made a lava-themed set.  I am not an artist, so do not expect fantastic work.  I am rather amateurish at best, but I try.  The trees and other elements came from the great rpgmapshare.com site.  Seriously, if mapmaking is your thing, check them out.

You can find the Winter Lands tiles at the download section of my site.  Feel free to drop a buck in the tip jar over there if you’d like.