Aereth and 4E

[Harley Stroh]

Thanks, Jedi. One of the adventures was written with your specific crew in mind.

//H

[JediOre]

Bhwaaa-haaa-haaaa!

Harley, at some point you'll have to let me know ALL about this. I'm interested. . . .

[xredjasonx]

My 4E Core Rule Book gift set will be here tomorrow, I'm so damn excited!

[xredjasonx]

Ok, so I just saw, for the first time, the 3 covers of the 4E DCC's on the OgreCave site. Wow!

Now, I've said before that I'm going to run the DCC's as an adventure path in between the games that my DM runs. Which one would you recommend most? Sellswords of Punjar looks pretty cool!

[Harley Stroh]

Red J,

That's a tough question ... are your adventures interludes to the regular campaign? (I.e. Is it the same band of adventurers?) If so, I think the Punjar series might be best, since the "down time" between adventures is spent in town --- where all sorts plots can be uncovered. Then, wrapping up the urban episodes, your heroes can go back out into the wilderness and return later to find that the urban plots are still progressing. All in all, your heroes would have very full lives. (I'm biased but Sellswords has some very fun encounters.)

But if it is an entirely separate campaign, I'd say you can pick up any one of the three original DCCs, depending on wherever your tastes run (and what you players are looking for in a game). We drew on different themes for each of the 3 series, so that while they are all DCCs at heart, each of the series has a subtly different tone.

//H

[xredjasonx]

Basically, what I'm going to do is have my group make characters (my dm really wants to play a tiefling warlock), and then start with a level 1 DCC and run them in succession up through the levels as an adventure path in itself- with the same characters. Once they hit level 30, or decide they want to play some new characters, I will start back at a level 1 DCC and run different ones in the same manner. I'm pretty sure I'm going to start with SoP, unless a different one comes out beforehand.

[xredjasonx]

p.s. yeah, it's totally separate to the games my DM runs. Aereth and the DCC's will be my thing in between those games.

[Harley Stroh]

That sounds like an awesome time. Sellswords of Punjar shouldn't disappoint.

And as for timing, the first 3 4E DCCs will release on the same date.

//H

[xredjasonx]

Thanks for the info!

[xredjasonx]

How can I get a copy of Punjar: The Tarnished Jewel if I'm not attanding any gaming events?

Since I'm probably going to use this as my base city and use Sellswords of Punjar as the first adventure, I'd like to get a copy of this.....

[jason.richardson]

How can I get a copy of Punjar: The Tarnished Jewel if I'm not attanding any gaming events?

Since I'm probably going to use this as my base city and use Sellswords of Punjar as the first adventure, I'd like to get a copy of this.....

Hey xredjasonx,

I asked the same question and the answer was "you'll have to go to your local game shop to get a copy". The idea of Free RPG Day is to get gamers into shops. Fair enough.

But, I called my local shop and they're not participating in Free RPG Day. They claim it costs them too much money. So no Punjar: The Tarnished Jewel for me. : (

[fathead]

How can I get a copy of Punjar: The Tarnished Jewel if I'm not attanding any gaming events?

Since I'm probably going to use this as my base city and use Sellswords of Punjar as the first adventure, I'd like to get a copy of this.....

Hey xredjasonx,

I asked the same question and the answer was "you'll have to go to your local game shop to get a copy". The idea of Free RPG Day is to get gamers into shops. Fair enough.

But, I called my local shop and they're not participating in Free RPG Day. They claim it costs them too much money. So no Punjar: The Tarnished Jewel for me. : (

I wouldn't worry about it too much. I missed the Free RPG Day last year, and picked up a copy on Ebay. Sure, it cost me money...but I did get my copy.

If you're at GenCon (and if Goodman Games still has copies), you could probably pick one up there. They did that last year, if I recall correctly...

As a last option, if I'm able to go to the RPG Free Day this year (and I drag my wife with me), I'll see if I can pick you up a copy and send it your way (if you don't mind paying for the postage).

[jason.richardson]

How can I get a copy of Punjar: The Tarnished Jewel if I'm not attanding any gaming events?

Since I'm probably going to use this as my base city and use Sellswords of Punjar as the first adventure, I'd like to get a copy of this.....

Hey xredjasonx,

I asked the same question and the answer was "you'll have to go to your local game shop to get a copy". The idea of Free RPG Day is to get gamers into shops. Fair enough.

But, I called my local shop and they're not participating in Free RPG Day. They claim it costs them too much money. So no Punjar: The Tarnished Jewel for me. : (

I wouldn't worry about it too much. I missed the Free RPG Day last year, and picked up a copy on Ebay. Sure, it cost me money...but I did get my copy.

If you're at GenCon (and if Goodman Games still has copies), you could probably pick one up there. They did that last year, if I recall correctly...

As a last option, if I'm able to go to the RPG Free Day this year (and I drag my wife with me), I'll see if I can pick you up a copy and send it your way (if you don't mind paying for the postage).

fathead,

That's very nice of you to offer.

I can't make GenCon. Traveling is too expensive right now.

If you manage to make it to Free RPG Day and grab me a copy, send me an email and I'll be happy to send you a money order to cover sending it to me media mail. My email is:

jason[dot]s[dot]richardson[at]gmail[dot]com.

Thanks again!

[jason.richardson]

Hello again,

Will the updated 4E Áereth incorporate the new core races and classes into its history? Áereth was originally based on core assumptions, so will 4E Áereth do the same thing? Will it be a setting designed for use with the races and classes from the Player's Handbook: Arcane, Divine, and Martial Heroes?

How do you see the news rules of 4E altering what we already know about Áereth?

Thanks!

[Harley Stroh]

Will the updated 4E Áereth incorporate the new core races and classes into its history? Áereth was originally based on core assumptions, so will 4E Áereth do the same thing? Will it be a setting designed for use with the races and classes from the Player's Handbook: Arcane, Divine, and Martial Heroes?

How do you see the news rules of 4E altering what we already know about Áereth?

Jason (btw, trying to learn varial heelflips before Gen Con),

You might have seen this post already. If you have, I'm sorry for the long repost. The new comments are at the bottom.

I wrote the post below back when I found out what was happening to the Forgotten Realms. I have a lot of friends that write for the Realms, so the whole Spellplague hit them pretty hard. Áereth, by contrast, wasn't undergoing nearly the same degree of changes. Here is what I wrote:

From what I've seen and read of 4E, Áereth right where it needs to be. This has nothing to do with us succesfully anticipating 4E but everything to do with Jeff, Mike and I writing a setting that's exciting to play.

In short, we got lucky.

Points of Light: Jeff, Mike and I wrote a PoL setting before Wizards came up with the buzzword. Even the Gaz's introduction highlights this. To me, a setting where even something as simple as travel is fraught with danger is truer to the medieval world, and just plain fun. The heroes need to be Heroes, and everything about Áereth is tailored to keep the spotlight on the PCs.

Tieflings/warlock’s infernal pacts: We got lucky on this one, but we nailed it. Quoted directly from the Gaz:

Like the priest-kings of old, many of those serving the Secret Kings are soulless husks, their souls sold into damnation in return for terrestrial powers. This is not undertaken lightly, since the Secret Kings are far from achieving their goals, and enemies abound. More commonly, the scions of the Secret Kings carry demon blood within their veins. Cambions, tieflings, and half-fiends, so common during the reign of the Priest-Kings, still exist within the dark halls of the Secret Kings.

The 4E tiefling, and pact-making warlocks are already in the setting.

Dragonborn: Again, got lucky, but we nailed it. Or rather, Jason Little nailed it, in his Vault of the Dragon Kings. Dragonborn fall neatly into place as mortal descendents from the deific line of Dragon Kings. This is doubly cool because it means we get to write up noble houses and warriors clans (in some fashion or another) for the dragonborn race. In DCC world, dragonborn adventurers are nobility from a lost age --- warriors where honor is everything, and customs reach back for eons.

Like tieflings, dragonborn aren't common by any stretch of the imagination. 90% of the regular population go their entire life without meeting a dragonborn. But as heroes, they are justified, since their story should be unique.

Split of Elves/Fae Realms: Again, got lucky. Check out Adventure Continues and Castle Whiterock for the first DCC forays into the Fae Realms. Way to go, Adrian and Jess.

Gnomes: Jeff loves gnomes, Harley less so. But Harley got to write the Northlands so you don’t see a lot of gnome lovin’. This was just me being lazy. The relegation of gnomes to "monsters" is a non-issue for me. Before you flame me, see the next point . . .

Most Important: DCC world was always intended to be your world. Hate dragonborn and tieflings? No sweat. Tear the pages out of your players' core books. Love gnomes? Declare Crieste overrun by the little guys. More power to the GM. DCC world is perfectly suited to 4E because, above all else, we always intended for it to be malleable. Don't let me, Joseph, or Wizards tell you how to run your game. Use what inspires you, and throw away the rest.

The 4E Known World isn't terribly different from the old-school Áereth we wrote into DCC #35. It's still a dangerous world rife with adventure and desperately in need of heroes. And, honestly, (please forgive the bias) I can't wait to play in it.

Key to my understanding is the idea that heroes are special. This means that the elaborate back stories and exotic races are acceptable. There don't have to be hundreds of dragonborn around (or even in the world) to justify one in the party. He just happens to be the single one that treked down from the Vault of the Dragon Kings. Same with the tiefling and eladrin. This is true of Conan, the Wandering Cimmerian. He was the one iron-thewed dude ( ) that came down from the North into the decadent lands and raised some Cain. Similarly, so are the less common 4E races. They are unusual, but they have the potential to become heroes.

Nothing I've learned since the release of the core books has changed my original opinion much. (Although I was telling Blackdirge just tonight how much I dislike the fluff text for the PC powers ... but that's for another thread.) Looking back on the 3 DCCs I've written for 4E, and of the several others that are currently in production, I can say with absolute certainty that the heart of the Dungeon Crawl Classic is alive and well. And that's because the adventures' stories (or rather, the stories your heroes get to live through) are all bigger than any one edition.

//H

[Harley Stroh]

Jason,

I'm realizing that despite posting a ton of words, I might not have answered your question.

Yes, the "new" 4E races will be incorporated into the 4E Áereth Gaz. But that doesn't mean that you'll see a lot of changes. There isn't going to be a nation of dragonborn popping up right next to Crieste. Like I intimated above, the are really very few, if any, overt changes that will take place to the Known Realms.

There will be, however, a fair bit of cool new background material dealing with the new 4E races. I'm honestly very excited to write about the dragonborn clan system. It's the sort of background that will serve GMs and players, even if they aren't allowing draonborn PCs, or aren't making the switch to 4E. The same will be true of the eladrin and tieflings. And it will be fun to write because it will be born out of the history the world has already established.

One of the cool things about the writing of the Gaz. is that we didn't start with the attitude of world creators or designers. Instead we, literally, took the role of historians. We went through all the DCCs, pulled out the setting bits, and tried to infer what world was behind those bits, making the adventures possible. We'll do the same thing with the new races, going back through all the adventures in search of details that tie into the new races, so that --- once all is said and done --- any GM will be be able to flip back through his collection of DCCs and point out a reference saying, "Aha! This is cursed line of fabled enchanters that gave rise to the demonspawn that are threatening your kingdom in DCC# 101."

//H

[jason.richardson]

Harley,

Thanks a lot for the detailed answers! Just what I was hoping to read. I have decided to delay the start of my 4E campaign until I have the updated setting or a few of the new 4E DCC. Yee haw!

[good luck with the varial heelflips. I primarily skate transition, preferably concrete. Nothing beats skating a concrete bowl! If you are ever in GA you have to contact me so that I can show you all the good hidden gems in our state.]

jason

[JediOre]

And a quick off topic moment:

What are "varial heelflips"? I gather from the references it is a manuver in skateboarding, but for us the ignorant, how would you discribe this manuver?

[jason.richardson]

And a quick off topic moment:

What are "varial heelflips"? I gather from the references it is a manuver in skateboarding, but for us the ignorant, how would you discribe this manuver?

Hey JediOre,

Kinda hard to describe, but watch this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLN215WrmBQ

jason

[Harley Stroh]

Jedi,

It takes a little while to get to the point in the video, but here's another depiction:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs4Dc8Xy ... re=related

(If nothing else, check out the last 20 seconds or so. Wow.)

Jason,

Re: Áereth. Well shoot, if you're going to wait it means we need to get the box set out ASAP.

Re: Skating. Heck yeah. You can teach me a thing or two, too. I'm mostly street, and pumping through bowls is still pretty foreign to me.

//H

[Harley Stroh]

Still off topic, Jason, great photos from the Kona Bowl Riders Cup. Sorry to hear about the ACL. I hope your friend is recovering.

//H

[GnomeBoy]

...Just glad to see there are DCC's planned out to no less than #101!

Also, is this heelflip thingy an Encounter ability or an At-Will? Does it require an action point?

[jason.richardson]

...Just glad to see there are DCC's planned out to no less than #101!

Also, is this heelflip thingy an Encounter ability or an At-Will? Does it require an action point?

I'd say - for me at least - heelflip would be a Daily, Standard Action, Dex vs. Will, and if you miss you take 2d10 ankle damage.

[jason.richardson]

Still off topic, Jason, great photos from the Kona Bowl Riders Cup. Sorry to hear about the ACL. I hope your friend is recovering.

//H

Thanks Harley - he's doing better but it'll be a while before he's doing method airs outta the bowl again.

[Harley Stroh]

*laugh*

What Jason wrote.

//H

Edit: NOT the ACL post.