All For Love

"If love's a word that you say, then say it, I will listen"
- Start the Machine, Angels and Airwaves

In stories everywhere, we see love being a huge motivating factor for many characters.  Yet in games such as D&D, I've seen it very little.  PC's either have romances with NPC's that don't really go anywhere.  So far in my games, there's little romance between PC characters.  I'm hoping that will change soon (especially when you throw a couple into a game).

How do I incorporate that change?  By thinking about what love actually is, means and how we feel it.

Psychologists will tell us there are many different kinds of love.  I'm not trying to analyze each aspect/difference in a relationship, but just in general.

When we are in love, we feel invincible, especially if the task at hand is related to the one we love.  Slaying a dragon, is easy when it holds our love in its sinister clutches.  With love, we will face any fear, accept any challenge, and go at any lengths for the person we hold so dear.

In 4E game terms, I think this represents a bonus to Will.  Will tends to represent mental fortitude, which could also be called Willpower.  As a DM, if a character was in a situation where their love was driving them, I would give them a +2 bonus to their Will defense, and possibly a +2 bonus to attacks relating to their love.  Think of this representing Peter Parker saving Mary Jane.  He's fighting all out just for her.  Failure is not an option, because if he fails, he loses Mary Jane.

For D&DNext, I would simply assign Advantage.  It's a great game rule with so many possibilities.

Being in love can also be difficult.  I remember watching Disney's The Sword in the Stone as a child and Merlin talking about how love is the most powerful force in the universe, to which Arthur responds with "More powerful than gravity?".  Yes, Arthur, more powerful than gravity.

Love can affect us negatively.  What happens when we lose the person we love, or something horrible has happened to them?  What if they were transformed into a vampire, like Lucy Westenra in Dracula?  Such a thing would have a profound effect upon a character, giving them a -2 penalty to Will and attacks in 4E, or giving them disadvantage in D&DNext.

I think the whole concept is really interesting.  First, involving a love interest brings out a better character story and a deeper roleplaying experience.  Two, I think giving out bonuses to players is a lot of fun, especially if the odds are stacked against them.  That being said, invoking penalties while fighting a vampire, or zombies can be just a moving for a player as their character is too grief wracked to be of much use.  Combat needs to drive story and have a purpose, and a character who can't really fight creates an interesting party conversation all of its own.

Let me know what you think in the comments below, and check me out on Twitter @artificeralf

New Beginnings

"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end"

- Closing Time, Semisonic

The adventures that I create now are all player driven.  When I first started DMing, I threw together an adventure idea and then let me players play it (there was very little choice, as it was what I had prepared).  I had to "sell" the adventure to them in order to get the game going.  Needless to say, the games weren't as fun as they could've been.  It wasn't until after a few months of DMing that I tried to make an adventure with one of the players in mind, and let everything feed off of that.  When we played that adventure, it was extremely well received, and from there, the rest is history.

I'm now working on another adventure.  Some of my readers might wonder why I take so long in creating these adventures and why I write about them so much.  Basically, I tend to run marathon games, where the players sit once a month and play for about 8 hours straight, since getting everybody together isn't always the easiest thing to do.  However, the group really likes up the marathon sessions, as by the end we feel like we accomplished something and have enough to talk about until the next game.

When you run marathon games, it's important to look at the previous adventure and figure out how to build on things from there.  Some important questions to ask are below.

1. What did the players accomplish in the last game?

2. Where did the players end in the last game?

3. Are there any repercussions to the choices they made?

With the first question, it allows you, as the DM to understand what the players actually did in the sense of how the game went.  Did they stop the sahuagin?  Did they recover the lost relic?  Did they reclaim control of their ship?  All these questions play into the next adventure.  For example, if the players did not reclaim their vessel, allow them ways to further that adventure path in the new adventure.

Knowing how the game ends allows you to figure out where the next one should start, filling in the time as needed.  If the players returned to a town, perhaps the adventure starts while they sleep.  Maybe they left that town and are on the road.  Perhaps they headed someplace else.  If they players are actively traveling to a new direction, make sure you speak with them about it before the game (or at the end of the last one) so you can plan accordingly.  Sending the players to a place they didn't want to go is sure to lead to some resentment.

The third question looks at the bigger picture of the adventures you're giving the characters.  If the characters failed to stop the sahuagin, what does it mean if they leave the village in the next adventure?  While these choices may not be seen throughout the entire adventure, it's important to remember them for further marathon adventure planning.

Let's look at what this means for my next adventure.

1. The players defeated a sahuagin group that had been lurking in a mess of shipwrecks.  They had no clue as to what that meant or why they were there, but knew the raiders were coming from there.

2. The adventure ended with the players having returned a sahuagin chief back to the town guard.

3. Possibly, depending on what the sahuagin's plans were.  However, an NPC in the city, a tiefling pirate named Viigill, spoke about helping them once they caused the sahuagin attacks to stop.

With those points being touched on, I can now move to my next step for adventure design.  I've written extensively about how big pirate-themed things are in my campaign world (this is my main campaign, not the playtest spin offs we run just to try new things), so I plan on using Viigill as a plot hook to get the adventure rolling, especially since the PC's have incentive to follow him.  This takes us away from the island community and basically allows me to run wherever I want to go.

I'm all about using whatever thing you have in your collection that inspires you.  For most of us, this involves whatever new thing we have in our collection.  For myself, it's my Dire Tombs Dungeon Tiles.  Other people may want to use a new monster miniature or poster map.  Whatever it is, find a creative way to throw it in!  You'll be happy running it, and your players won't know anything different.

The trick now is finding a way to connect the dots.  The best way to do that is to look to your players and the characters they play.

Let's look at two main characters from my campaign:

Niz - Niz is seeking to reclaim his own ship and become his own pirate.  I believe that Niz will help Viigill in whatever he needs, simply because he feels that Viigill can help him.

Vivianne - Viviann is trying to find her father.  If the new adventure gives leads to Vivianne, so much the better.  She will want to follow them in hopes of figuring out what happened to him.

I'm also introducing new players to the game.  I don't know if they will come back and play again, but having them there is always a big deal.  D&D can be intimidating, so it's important that our new players feel welcome.  Talk with the new players about the kind of character they want to be, and then introduce them in interesting ways.  One girl that will be playing is going to be a Arya Stark-like character who has spunk and attitude.  I think the players will encounter her in one of the cells of the pirate ship, having been captured in a past expedition, but imprisoned due to her defiant nature.  Fire Emblem is a great series of games that provides a ton of awesome player introduction opportunities.  I would take a look at some of those games if you wonder how to introduce new players.

From there, designing the rest of the adventure is basically the same.  Plan something fun with lots of story hooks and options, and you'll be good to go!

Leave your comments below, and be sure to follow me on Twitter @artificeralf

A Pirate's Life For Me

"Not all treasure is silver and gold, mate."

- Jack Sparrow

I spent yesterday evening browsing TV Tropes and Idioms since there was nothing on TV, and I wasn't able to go and see Iron Man 3 yet.  For some reason, I simply read through the Pirates of the Caribbean page, and while doing so, had my entire imagination fire up again.  I don't think I've ever given those movies enough credit for how they have impacted my thoughts on D&D games, but last night, I realized they have always been a strong focal point for me.

No matter what people say about the plot, movie length, or anything else, the Pirates movies are about one thing: characters.  I never found scenes boring, or dull, or making me wonder how long the movie would go, simply because the characters were so engaging.  How does this translate to D&D?  Quite simply, the characters in your game.  I have the privilege of DMing for a solid group of roleplayers, a few of which bring out the best in the others.  In doing so, the game becomes even more real, and the players get involved even more.  I've created adventures with plot ties to the characters, simply because these get more response than "slay the dragon" or "rescue the princess".  These points are generally made by numerous DM's and writers in other places, but it's something that needs to be said often and repeated numerous times.

The movies have also provided great inspiration in the fact that some of my best players choose to play pirate characters.  I've written about Captain Nizumo Misoka and Vivianne Shearwater a few times, so I will spare my readers the details of them.  But I will say that even if you have one player who jumps into roleplaying and characterization, run with that player for an adventure or two and watch them pull others into the game.  I've also decided that I need to make my own pirate-type character, just so I can interact with those two players when somebody else decides to DM.  I've always been more of a Will Turner fan myself though.  I'm not the silver and gold kind of pirate.

The Pirates movies always had fantastic locations for battles and skirmishes, something that can be lacking in D&D games.  I say this because for a while, I ran boring encounters.  The players would fight goblins because they needed to fight something (or so I thought).  I didn't make it fantastic, and I didn't make it exciting.  It didn't advance the plot.  Needless to say, I soon learned from my mistakes.  Perhaps the scene that I always have loved from Pirates was when they fight on the giant waterwheel (I once impressed a girl by re-enacting that scene at a Cross Country practice.  We dated for a little while after that).

Sometimes, a fantastic journey is enough to bring players into the adventure and make them want to continue playing.  Pirate and sea adventures are awesome for this.  Think about it: every ship is unique and has a name!  This alone gives players an attachment to them.  Think about Jack Sparrow and his beloved Black Pearl.  The name of the ship is even in the first movie's title!  Before I had seen the film, I thought the movie was literally about some treasured pearl.  Imagine my surprise when I found out that this was a ship (though not just any ship)!

When ships become involved, at some point, ship to ship combat becomes necessary.  The climax of the third movie, in which the heroes fight their opponents on a giant maelstrom, is exactly the kind of encounters DM's need to throw at their players.  I tried finding some pictures of D&D games with ship battles, and couldn't really find any.  For myself, the best thing I have is sahuagin attacking a docked ship!  That's not even the same!

 

The monsters and villains in Pirates make for great adventures as well.  In the first movie, we have undead.  In my mind, skeletons are always the best kind of pirate themed undead to use.  I'm not really sure why, but in my youth, I always remember the skeleton either pointing the way to the treasure, or being somewhere in the captain's lair.  The second movie also gave us the kraken, pretty much the traditional beast of the sea that everybody fears, not to mention the mutated, corrupted crew of Davy Jones.  They add the fantasy to fantastic when it comes to Pirate adventures.  I'm really excited about the new Pathfinder miniatures set, Skull and Shackles, as it has so many awesome sea adventure miniatures.  You can find the preview gallery here.  Major props to Sly Flourish, who has an awesome Talon of Umberlee set up!

I also think that the main theme, "He's a Pirate", completely defines the pirate genre.  My next pirate themed adventure will have to make use of the song during the final encounter.  I think my players would appreciate it too.

I encourage you to think about your favorite movies and how they could inspire you for better D&D games.  I also have a compilation of sea and ship ideas on my Pinterest board here.

Thanks for all your encouragement as I continue to climb my mountain.  Be sure to leave your comments below, and follow me on Twitter @artificeralf 

I hope that this blog inspires others

Lessons from Star Wars

"Always in motion is the future"
-Yoda

When life knocks you down and kicks you in the ribs, we tend to flee into our own sanctuaries to cope.  Alternately, we tend to escape into our sanctuaries when we're happy too.  They just give us a great way to relax and enjoy the good times.

Star Wars has done all of those things for me.  It was there long before Dungeons and Dragons, and has greatly influenced my life and creative outlooks and inspirations.  I got into Star Wars when I was about 8 (this age seems correct in my memory, as I know that Episode I came out when I was 9).  My first Star Wars action figure was a Han Solo that came with a carbonite slab to freeze him in.  I was a Jawa for Halloween when I was 9, and I was young Obi-Wan Kenobi when I was 10.  My Lego building adventures always ended with some sort of epic lightsaber battle, and I always wanted to know about all of the aliens in Jabba's Palace.  I also played the Decipher Star Wars card games.  

I was excited for the prequels to come out, but I don't think I got into the first two as much as I got into Revenge of the Sith.  For some reason, that story was just the culmination of everything I loved about Star Wars.  I was in early high school, running track and enjoying a great season with friends and setting some awesome personal records, running 2 miles in under 10 minutes.  I saw Revenge of the Sith twice in theaters, and had memorized all the dialogue (I had been doing that since I was little.  Don't ask me how).

Anyway, so now that everybody can understand how prominent Star Wars has been in my life, let's look at some of the ways it has inspired me creatively and how to apply those lessons to D&D.

1. "If there's a bright center to the universe, you're on the planet that its the farthest from."

In Star Wars, every planet is a different fantastic location.  Desert, forest, volcano, etc.  Use these in your own D&D games when you try to figure out the theme of a location.  Are the heroes going to explore a jungle?  Are they climbing mountains?  In essence, pick a terrain theme and think about what can be done to make it an amazing experience.  In my Vellyn posts, I've taken the concept of snow to the next level, with avalanches, blizzards, and evil snow beasts.  You should do the same.

2."You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy."
D&D games should be full of interesting characters, not just the PC's.  Populate your worlds with denizens exhibiting interesting clothing, personalities, or appearances.  NPC's make the world, from that hammerheaded looking alien to the pale skinned woman watching a podrace.  Your players will want to find out more about them, which may lead into some interesting adventures all on their own.

 

3. "I have a bad feeling about this."
Every adventure should have some threat to it.  That's the whole point of Dungeons and Dragons.  Great rewards require great sacrifice.  Whether this comes from infiltrating an enemy outpost to rescuing a captive friend, your players should always feel the danger of what they are about to undertake.

 

 

4.  "He was deceived by a lie.  We all were."

In order to create complex, awesome villains, hiding them in plain sight always works well.  Nothing is more shocking that finding out the person you trusted has fallen, or was always plotting against you from the start.  Whether it was a character's father, or a well loved mentor, the shock of learning their true nature is enough to make any hero question their own motives and their possible destiny.

 

 

 5. "You and the Naboo form a symbiont circle.  What happens to one of your will affect the other.  You must understand this."

Choices have consequences.  For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.  The same happens in D&D games.  In order to fully take advantage of this, players need to be presented with choices.  Do they stop the orcs from kidnapping the baron or let the trolls destroy the homesteads?  While the heroes are saving the day in one area, what is happening in the other?  Or, in a different sort of approach, what happens when one group allies with another, as opposed to the third party?  As the DM, it's up to you to make that call.

 

I'm going to stop this post with those important lessons.  I've used them in many of the games that I've run, and I think they add a solid depth to any game.

We'll see where life continues to take me.  I'm trying to be strong, faithful, and courageous.

Be sure to leave your comments below, and follow me on Twitter @artificeralf

   

Cave of Wonders

"It begins on a dark night, where a dark man waits, with a dark purpose..."

- Aladdin

As life changes, so do adventure ideas.  While I wrote and brainstormed the Vellyn (snow & ice) campaign for quite some time, now that life has alternated, some of the main players involved may be dropping out.  Due to this unexpected nature of life, I'm adjusting.  Perhaps Vellyn will become a possibility again in a few more weeks.

It seems that as I talk with various people, both old friends and new acquaintances, they all seem intrigued when I tell them that I'm involved with Dungeons and Dragons (even writing one article gets you some respect), and when I extend an invitation to them to play, they seem partially uncertain, but extremely interested at the same time.  And so, most of the my games of late are introducing people to the awesomeness that is D&D.

 As I talked about in blog post earlier this week, I've been reading all of the Ashes of Athas adventures since they've become available.  Some of my favorite adventures in the campaign arc are the ones where the characters are exploring old elemental temples, Kalak's ziggurat and the like.  My favorite part about these adventures is the maps that are made out of various Dungeon Tiles.  Other DM's have spoken out that they don't enjoy Dungeon Tiles for a number of reasons.  I think they create a lot of awesome looking terrain relatively easy.  Slap down a acrylic sheet over your tiles, and the map looks solid and doesn't move around.  Bam! You're done.

Ashes of Athas used the Dungeon Tile set Dire Tombs.  I was extremely impressed with Dire Tombs when I first got into D&D and bought the book Dungeon Delve.  Many of the maps in the mini delves used the tiles from Dire Tombs.  Out of all the different tiles, Dire Tombs had a unique look and just seemed to ooze flavor as players would explore.  It was a set I always wanted, but since it was from 2008, it was difficult to acquire.  I did some hunting and searching, and I found two sets for a decent price, so I decided to treat myself and get them.  Two sets of course.

 

Now I have the joy of planning a new adventure for new players.  When I last did a game like this, I ran Evil Tide and used a ton of sahuagin.  This time, I think I'm going to go for a more elemental themed game.  As a child, my favorite movie was Aladdin.  I watched it countless times on repeat, dressed up as him for Halloween, and basically wanted anything Aladdin (it was my birthday cake too).  In true D&D style, I'm going to pull from my own Appendix N of Karl's Influences and take some inspiration from the much loved Disney movie.

Monster-wise, skeletons fit the theme nicely.  There are numerous tiles in the set that have skeletons scattered around them.  I also think that the "tomb/cave" atmosphere will support spiders and other creepy crawlies.  Though the Dire Tombs tiles are yellow-ish, I plan on combining them with Cathedrals of Chaos and the Dungeon Master Set to create some other interesting terrain and features.  Cathedrals of Chaos especially does well for hidden tunnels, broken columns, and elemental features like water and lava pools. 

The Cave that will comprise the adventure will also have some deep spots that lead to the Underdark.  This will allow me to throw some Hook Horror monsters into the adventure as well, giving me an excuse to finally use them after I bought a few at Gen Con for a cheap price.

Reading the Ashes of Athas adventures also made me miss playing 4E, as all my D&D playing lately has been with the playtest packets for D&DNext.  With all the options (and books) for 4E, it's almost a shame that I'm not playing it as much, but perhaps one day soon I'll go back.  Brainstorming a new adventure has made me pull out the books and start diving into them again.  Heroes of the Elemental Chaos had a ton of great primordial information, and some of the creatures and descriptions really gave me a lot of inspiration.  If anybody else has a favorite book that they always go back to, let me know in the comments!

On a side note, I was flipping through the Book of Vile Darkness Player's Guide when I saw the paragon path for an evil druid which would basically allow them to become a vermin lord.  The picture in the book reminds me of Kyuss, which immediately made me think of my favorite Dungeon Command: Curse of Undeath miniature, the Disciple of Kyuss.  I noticed a similarity to that miniature and my favorite PC one, the half-elf druid.  Could a player switch miniatures upon hitting paragon tier, representing their dark transformation?  I think so.

Life is still moving forward, even though my plans changed.  It does feel good to write again and be inspired and creative.  Thanks again for the support everybody!

As always, leave comments below and be sure to follow me on Twitter @artificeralf

Climbing Mount Doom

"There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tower high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while.  The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him.  For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach."

- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King

Despite all the blogging that I do, I very rarely mention the main campaign I'm in.  The scope of it is pretty huge, and there are a lot of epic moments.  It's called Life.

I play a Divine based character (pretty sure I'm a cleric, though I have to find my sheet).

For those that have read my last few tweets (or lack thereof), I've mentioned that my life got a little crazy, and because of that, I had to take some time away from the blog while I re-evaluated some things.  Not blogging, and not writing, but just life, and where I'm headed and what my story is.

I've mentioned it in other posts, but I live as a Christian.  It is an integral part of my life, and determines the basis of how and what I do.  In essence, I am second to God and serving him.  The work of Christ is my first priority. 

One of my favorite authors of all time is Tolkien.  I read The Hobbit when I was 10, and had finished all The Lord of the Rings before the movies came out.  That was a big deal to me, since I was able to say I read all the books BEFORE the movies even existed (I guess I was a Tolkien hipster).  One of the big things I loved about Tolkien was his Christian-based writing.  I think it was during that time that I knew I wanted to write and create characters.

The thing about Tolkien is that his books were based off his own life struggles during World War I, where most of his friends had lost their lives.  From there, certain elements and themes of his grand story were things he had thought about in his own life, his faith being one of them.

When it comes to playing D&D, I think my own life story and my faith has had a huge impact on me as well.  The worlds I create, the NPC's, and the overall themes I challenge my players to face all are linked to my story, and the faith story God has given me.

While I discovered D&D during a time when I was stricken with arthritis, it was not the reason I started Artificer's Intuition.  That all came about of another great test and story, and in its aftermath, I decided to take a chance with a dream of mine.  Hence the blog was born.

A year and half ago, somebody that I was extremely close with was in a horrible car accident.  The car was stopped, since the freeway was backed up.  Another driver, not having seen the stopped car, crashed full speed in the stopped vehicle.  My friend was in a coma for a week.  The other two people in my friend's car didn't make it.

The week my friend was in the coma brought us a lot of questions.  Would my friend be ok?  Would there be brain damage?  What kind of life would they lead afterward? 

With some of these other challenges in life that I've gone through, it becomes apparent that we are always given choices.  Despite the fear and uncertainty of the times, I prayed earnestly for my friend, rallying others to pray for her as well.  My friend came out of the coma, and miraculously, had no severe injuries.  No broken bones.  No internal bleeding.  Simple physics equations will tell you that something should have happened to her when a force of that magnitude struck her.  I knew in my heart she had been saved for a reason.

I'm not sure that I will be continuing my story with my friend's.  The story got a lot more complex, and I'm not sure what's going to happen.  I do know that I will continue to pray, and continue to follow Christ.  That part of my life hasn't changed.  In a sense, it has made me more devout as life has become more uncertain.  I'm interested to see where my campaign goes next. 

About a month ago, I ordered a Star Wars Miniatures map pack.  Why did I do this?  Simply because having multiple maps is awesome, and this one had something very special, especially for Vellyn, my ice and snow world.  I give you the Nelvaan Plains.

The flip side of this map is a temple courtyard, with a massive Star Wars tank in the middle.  While I'm not sure what I would use it for, I figured I could either cover it up with other tiles/3D terrain, or say it's a massive broken construct or airship.  Let me know what you think!

 In the last few weeks, I've also started exercising more, giving myself an outlet for some of my energy.  I decided I needed an artistic outlet as well, so I bought some miniature paint and a small pack of Warhammer 40K goblins to paint for fun.  Since my campaign world uses a lot of alchemy, the fact that they are holding pistols isn't a big deal.  I just call them alchemical firearms or something.  Since they're goblins, this is pretty likely in my games.

 

Thanks everybody for being here for me in my difficult time.  Special thanks to Teos Abadia for reaching out to me and having some nice chats.  If you haven't started getting emails with the Ashes of Athas adventures, contact him right away (@Alphastream) to start getting them.  They are really amazing and inspiring!

As always, leave your comments below and be sure to follow me on Twitter @artificeralf

7 Questions with Rafael Romo Mulas

"Friendship is born that moment when one person says to another: What! You too?  I thought I was the only one." - C.S. Lewis

For March, I chose to interview Rafael Romo, who goes by @rrockman on Twitter.  Rafael just happened to start following me on Twitter at the end of last year, and enjoyed commenting on my blog posts about Evil Tide, and using aquatic monsters in general.  He's probably the person that I tweet back and forth with the most, simply because we seem to always find that we're interested in the same things (sahuagin, dinosaurs, etc).  

One of my goals when writing these interviews was taking some time to look at D&D fans as players and adventurers, not as authors who worked on various pieces of work.  The every man (and woman) if you will.  Ultimately, players and DM's make the game, and it is from those experiences that the game becomes better.

I'm extremely grateful to have been allowed to interview Rafael, for although we have yet to meet in person, I feel that we have formed quite the friendship, 160 characters at a time.  I'll leave you all with a little emoticon, since Rafael loves them so much. :)

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself.  How did you get into D&D?  How long have you been playing?

Hello, I’m Rafael Romo Mulas, and if you’re a D&D community junkie you may have heard about me under the nickname of Lord Archaon (a very evil character from the Warhammer universe). I’m half-Italian and half-Mexican (and very often Half-Elf too!) and partly due to my origins I tend to be very wordy, as the few readers of my blogs know; so I apologize in advance for the long sentences and paragraphs, but it’s stronger than me! I’ll try to be as concise as possible, I promise… :)

I got into D&D thanks to the (much) older brother of a girl that was my friend during nearly all my childhood. I was 7 years old or 8 when he introduced us to the game, and I remember I played a Halfling, probably using 1^st edition rules, since there wasn’t distinction between race and class…
The next thing I asked for my birthday was the mythical Red Box, but it started being always a “theoretical hobby” since I couldn’t find players. This was the start of a trend that continues even now, although not as bad.

I basically lost my interest for years until I picked up Baldur’s Gate, the videogame, when it came out.

After that I decided I wanted to return to tabletop and actually play it for real, and I bought 2^nd edition rules to simulate the game, but then  I saw the recently printed 3^rd edition ones and they looked too much of an evolution to ignore them, so I brought back 2^nd edition and took 3^rd instead. Fell in love! I played with two different groups, always as DM, and had quite some fun creating my settings, adventures, monsters, classes, and basically everything.

In 2005-2006 more or less, I started being active in the official community forums with my Lord Archaon persona, and I received some good feedback for my home-brew Classes and Prestige Classes, and then became a judge for the “Official Custom Class Cookie Contest” for quite some time, introducing a sub-contest for Prestige Classes too.

At that point 4^th edition was announced and I was very happy because I had already lost my group right because of the increasing prep-time that became the great problem of 3^rd edition. I understood very quickly the “feel” of 4^th edition and its “lightness” compared to the 3^rd, so I easily ignored all the criticism, and I wasn’t at all let down by the edition, if not perhaps because of the continuous errata that came out. Played again with the old group, which recognized the good and the bad of 4^th edition, but I must say that the edition was so poorly received nation-wide in Italy (partly due to unwise translations, but I digress), that it became impossible to find new players when my group got disbanded because people couldn’t play anymore for other reasons.

That’s when I started an excellent period of Play-by-Post games in which for nearly the first time, I got to be player, and I went very close to say: “Hey, if it’s so cool I think I won’t DM again!”... :-D

Plus, me and my friend Gonzalo Campoverde (AKA “Veritatis”, in the official community here), which I have to name and link here because through the community he became one my best real-life (although distant) friends of all time, got quite involved in the Zendikar-D&D community project/group (found here) that I kick-started myself (and which now counts more members than the official D&D Italy group! :) ), and we played our Play-by-Post adventures in the wonderful setting that is Zendikar, one of the newest Magic: The Gathering settings. This is perhaps the D&D project I got more fond of in my entire gaming career, so yeah… I had to mention it! 

Eventually though even with Play-by-Post and despite the great DM and setting, it became apparent that the extremely long encounters typical of 4^th edition were its biggest flaw and diluted the interest of most players and DMs.

So basically, when D&D Next got announced, I got positively psyched again, because again I had recognized the limits of the previous edition and I was quick to recognize the spirit of Next and what it tried to accomplish. I blogged the hell out of my official community profile, and eventually started a new blog too when playtest material actually came out to the public.

I then started being a #dndnext Twitter hashtag animal too, and the rest is history, or better yet the present! :)

2. From all our tweeting back and forth, it is well known that you love aquatic monsters.  Why is this?  Do you play a lot of aquatic themed games with ships?  What should all DM's know about aquatic monsters?  Do you have any amazing game stories from them?

Oh my, it’s not something about aquatic monsters only: I’d ALWAYS play aquatic adventures and settings in D&D! :-D It’s something of a personal taste that goes beyond fantasy and RPGs obviously, but let’s stay on-topic… Speaking of D&D, I always tried to include aquatic encounters in all my adventures as a DM and I must say I always enjoyed the three-dimensional tactical combat, which I nearly always simplified to three basic layers (upper, middle, lower). Plus, most of the time it was a way to add a time-limit suspense to combat: Waterbreathing wasn’t often available! 
Plus, I love to see my seas and aquatic environments a lot as most settings see the Underdark: the place from which all kinds of ancient, alien, and destructive evil come out! I’m a big fan of Lovecraft and in particular the Dagon-related stuff. Dagon is in fact my favorite demon prince and thus favorite monster and personality in the whole D&D universe. It’s basically all an aesthetic fetish that I have! :)

                                              

3. Your wrote a blog post detailing your thoughts on the D&DNext Warlord.  Why is the Warlord, as a class, so important to you?  What experiences have you had in D&D (and life) that make it so vital?

The Warlord is extremely important as a concept (more than as a class) to me for basically two reasons. First of all because it represented the first time in the history of the game in which you could play a character that could aid his/her allies using neither spells nor actual combat. So basically because of its “I didn’t know how much I needed this until I saw it” nature.

 
Then also because it represents the “committed warrior” archetype better than the Fighter ever could. The focus of the Warlord on both knowledge of warfare and actual physical competence in it is what every warrior that would want to be better than a common one should have. And this in my mind rings like “this is was every D&D “warrior” should be”; hence my blog post (here) which tries to prove my point about the Warlord archetype actually including the archetype of the Fighter, and not the other way around.

To better drive home my point here, I will mention the movie I mentioned on my blog too: 300. With 300, the world saw on the big screen perhaps for the first time a good representation of an archaic and a bit fantastic but very cool “ideal warrior”. The Spartans and in particular King Leonidas became the great icons they are today in popular culture, and they proved the difference between “fighting man” and “True Warrior”, with their whole combination of underlying “warrior philosophy”, knowledge of warfare, but also very strong physicality, competence, and “grunt feel”. 

                            

I think D&D began to include this “new and improved” idea of warrior in 4e, but kind of contaminated it with the highly un-orthodox (for D&D standards) AEDU mechanics.
Plus, since Fighter and Warlord were distinct and their roles fixed, it was difficult to build a coherent “True Warrior”, until Hybrid character creation rules came out. At that point, it was mechanically possible, but it felt a bit like mechanical overkill to build what should be a very simple concept, all basically because classes were too restricted in their scope and identity.

D&D Next, with its current proposal of a more warlord-esque Fighter, and the simpler mechanics, has me all psyched because it basically make me think: “Wow: now everyone can finally play a True Warrior, without the hassle of having tens of powers and taking hours to build the character.”

     4. Your tweets about the D&DNext Rogue haven't been as passionate, but you've very concerned with how the Rogue turns out.  Is there a story behind this?  What does the Rogue need in order for it to feel correct for you? 

     Well actually, as of now the Rogue is my FAVORITE class in D&D Next, but the blog in which I expressed my newly-found happiness about it has gone a little unseen for some reason, probably because I put “Terence Hill” in the title..! :-D

 

My problem with the Rogue is that, call me presumptuous, I always felt like I understood the identity of the class better than the game designers!! And I always felt it more comprehensive and wide, a bit like for the Fighter-Warlord thing.
How can I build my Indiana Jones? How can I build my Terence Hill-like trickster/bruiser character? How can I build my “street boy that causes havoc just by messing around” character? All these archetypes clearly belonged to the Rogue class, but until the latest playtest packet they were absolutely unbuildable. The very fact that the Rogue needed to attack in combat to defeat enemies was off to me. Rogues should differ from Fighters rightly because fighting is not their favorite way of dealing with things. The Warlord taught us that a non-magical character can be useful in combat without actually hitting anything. I wanted the same for the Rogue, and I’m finally getting it with Next, so again I’m super-excited by what the designers are doing!

I point you to my post about the D&D Next Rogue if you’re interested in reading more about my point of view on the class. :) Here!

      5. I've noticed that you are multilingual.  How many languages do you speak total, and how does this influence your D&D games?

      Ok if I want to brag a bit, adding my knowledge of Sardinian language (a language spoke in the Italian island of Sardinia), another minor European language that is Catalan, learned from my year studying in Barcelona, and my smatterings of Bulgarian, a country which I visited four times, I would say I speak 6 languages, but of course it would be quite a lie. J I basically only speak correctly Italian, Spanish, and English (although the latter with many external influences in my way of writing as you may or may not notice).
However, in Italy we also have a lot of dialects which I know smatterings of, so adding all these stuff together and relating it to the D&D experience has always been quite fun. Things like “Elves speak French, Dwarves speak German/Russian or Sardinian (because of their character, but you wouldn’t understand…), Gnomes speak “Napoletano” (because it’s got to be the language of the master tricksters! :D ), Halflings speak Gypsy-influenced-Spanish” and so on, are common fun assumptions of my campaigns with Italian friends, which add a bit of pseudo-realism to the acting of characters of different races/cultures.

Actually, the biggest problem with languages and D&D is that to correctly role-play one must not just know a language, but must be very very fluent and quick-witted with it, so for example I had a lot of trouble roleplaying in English, even if my English is considered quite good by most. I guess when I’ll (hopefully) live in an English-speaking country, I’ll catch up enough on the language to be able to play D&D with it well; and will finally find more players too given the higher diffusion of the hobby in English-speaking countries. :)
 

      6. What was the best D&D session that you were a part of, either as a player or a DM?

      This is a very difficult question, because as I said my true D&D gaming experiences have been actually quite few and distanced in time…
I must say I really appreciated being a DM to people over their 20s when I was only 15, one summer, when we played in a campaign of my creation set in Chult, in the Forgotten Realms. They were all quite happy with it and we had tons of fun since they were a bunch of crazy people and it was vacation time so we could play at all the hours of the night and sometimes even dawn! Classical good D&D times, and many complaints for all the noise we made at those hours… Let’s say it was the highest example of the social aspect of D&D.

As a player though, I must mention again my favorite DM, Gonzalo Campoverde, and his incredibly well thought and mastered adventures set in Zendikar and played-by-post in the Community page of our Zendikar-D&D group. There the social aspect was technically absent, but as for true gaming and story fun, it was awesome. We also ended up focusing on cooperative story-telling, which I think is a less known aspect of D&D that is incredibly stimulating, and which I hope D&D Next will emphasize a bit more than its predecessors, at least in the Dungeon Master’s Guide or its equivalent, and perhaps also in whatever kind of “Basic Box” we’ll eventually get.

7. What are your D&D goals for the future?  Do you want to write more and continue your blog?  Get a pitch accepted by WotC?  Or are you involved in the community for the sake of involvement and helping other gamers?

      Oh well, let’s see... I certainly would like to continue writing on my blog my usual ramblings, perhaps finishing detailing my custom cosmology as of now called Cthon, or World of Cthon when defined as a full-fledged setting. The whole hobby must be set aside most of the time though, against my will, because I must really invest much more time in more urgent things such as studies and work.

 

I considered submitting a pitch to WotC for quite some time, but never did, so that’s something I could do sometime in the future when I’ll have more time. And again after I’ll settle my real-life issues a bit more, I will surely look forward to play and/or DM in a live group, as we all love… One thing I plan to continue doing regularly is eagerly reading all the D&D Next news and material we get (again, as we all love), and submitting all the feedback I can to WotC.
Oh, and reading more of Artificer’s Intuition posts, of course..! ;-)

Thanks again for the interview Rafael!  To the readers, be sure to check out his blog, Lord Archaon's Grimoire (here) and follow him on Twitter @rrockman  Leave your comments below, and you can always find me on Twitter @artificeralf