Exclusive GenCon cover!
Fire From the Sky: Contraband Edition
For those of you that managed to download Fire From the Sky before it became contraband, I have a special offer!
Due to several people asking for it, here is the PDF of ONLY THE COVER to the Fire From the Sky: Contraband Edition printed specially for my running of it at GenCon.
NOTE: This is ONLY THE COVER - I can't repeat that enough - and has been modified to remove the official Gamma World logo (which was one of the requirements in the cease and desist order from Wizards of the Coast). It will be available here for a limited time, and then it will disappear forever (at least until WotC legal says otherwise).
So here ya go!
Fire From the Sky: Contraband Edition (COVER ONLY!!!)
-=O=-
Recently, as part of the Rule of Three series, Wizards of the Coast had something to say about future Gamma World content...
Since Legion of Gold, there does not seem to have been any official content for Gamma World besides novels. Do you have any plans for continued support and future content for use in D&D Gamma World4e?
This September, we have a Gamma World-themed Deck of Many Things planned for Dungeon. Beyond that, we have no plans to release more content for Gamma World.
I'm wary about the term "no plans to release"... I don't know if that means that they simply haven't considered any further content or if they're not going to make any more content ever. I'm staying optimistic that it's the former, but considering their latest reactions I can't really say.
And, in light of all the demand for Gamma World content, the only thing they come up with is a converted Deck of Many Things? Really?!?
I'm continuing my lobbying in the hopes that I can get clarification on the future of Gamma World, specifically as it relates to third party content. I'm not expecting them to radically change their stance or do something surprising like... you know... update the 4e GSL and the 4e SRD (it's been over two years since that's happened).
In any event, I will be at GenCon with a few copies of Fire From the Sky: Contraband Edition and my new module - The Coming Dark, Chapter One: Into the Light - in the hopes that I can corner someone from Wizards of the Coast and get some more information. Again, I'm not getting my hopes up, but someone has to try.
Anyway, see y'all there!
Legal Limbo
I'm in somewhat of an awkward situation.
Last week, while I was out of town on vacation, I was hit with a "cease and desist" order preventing me from distributing the Fire From the Sky Gamma World module to anyone. Note that I say "distributing" and not "selling"... As per the C&D, I'm restricted from giving the module to anyone, even for free. FFTS is now a controlled substance.
NOTE: I have asked for authorization to publish the C&D letter verbatim as I received it, but have not gotten approval to do so. Just to be safe, I will not publish its contents until cleared to do so.
Since then I have attempted to contact the legal entity that sent the C&D for clarification on what the issue is, but there's a problem: the legal firm that sent the C&D is a law firm in New York City - Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP (hereinafter refered to as "PBWT") - and not Wizards of the Coast's legal team in Renton, Washington (who are the people I originally contacted). PBWT apparently cannot speak on behalf of Wizards of the Coast without contacting WotC first (they make no decisions on their own), so if I ask PBWT any question they must send it to WotC Legal in Renton, wait for a response, then respond to me. I'm dealing with a third party, not WotC directly.
I'm at one end of a legal grapevine, having to wait for my message to bounce all the way to Washington and back.
So I made an effort to contact someone in Wizards of the Coast, be they legal or not, in the hopes that someone could talk to me directly. I received the following response from Wizards Customer Support:
Unfortunately, our Legal Department is only available via mail. To contact them, please use the following address:
Wizards of the Coast
Attn: Legal
PO Box 707
Renton, WA 98057-0707
Seriously?!? What century are we in again?
It's been about three days since I sent my first volley of questions, and I have yet to hear anything. At this rate, it may be months before I have any idea what the issue is or what I am allowed to do in future products.
In the meantime, all my other projects...
- The Fortress of Dr. Neb, Gamma World module. This campaign may be pretty much dead at this point.
- A planned "GammaCore" module based on the LHC
- My big campaign, The Coming Dark, which is normal D&D 4e and not Gamma World.
...are on hold. I don't know what to do with them at this point. I'm afraid to work on anything, unsure whether I'll be wasting my time on a project that may never see the light of day.
I'm kind of hoping that there will be some sort of WotC legal representation at GenCon, so maybe I can sort out these issues in person.
In the meantime, I do have some news: a third party has contacted me and expressed interest in converting both Fire From the Sky and The Fortress of Dr. Neb for use in Pathfinder and the upcoming Warlords of the Apocalypse supplement, even though nobody seems to be sure when that supplement will actually be released (it's seem to have had quite a turbulent development history). So stay tuned for that!
On another note, I am seriously considering running Fire From the Sky at GenCon; although I'm restricted from distributing it, I'm not restricted from using it myself. The only problem: I haven't DM-ed an in person game in well over a decade, so I'm not sure if I can handle it. So I'll hang out and watch others DM for the first few days just to make sure I can be on par with everyone else, and if it does happen might be Saturday. Don't bank on it, but we'll see if I can muster the courage before I'm on the flight back.
I might even make a special "THE MODULE THEY DO NOT WANT YOU TO SEE!!!" cover for it.
In the meantime, if you have an "in" with someone at Wizards of the Coast I would appreciate some insight as to the issue with Fire From the Sky. I would be willing to provide you a copy of the module if you work for Wizards of the Coast; I don't think I can legally give you one if you're not.
Until then... I wait patiently, hoping for some clarification...
Fourthcore/Gamma World concept
When I get an idea in my head, it's really hard to shake it. I'm already working on two modules, so I must be insane to think of a third one.
But I can't help it!!! It's my heroic flaw!!!
Having been heavily influenced by Save Versus Death's Fourthcore adventures (especially the ultra-secret playtest I have the honor of reviewing), and being even more inspired by his own talk of creating a "Gammacore" module next year, I had an idea pop in to my own head. Even though I can't imagine when I'll do it, I can't help but try in the near future.
Here is the premise, in its most primitive form (NOTE: The following is a "brain dump" and still needs a lot of clean up):
In the year 2012, a group of scientists in Geneva, Switzerland decided to try something different for a change, and with a simple flip of a seemingly innocuous switch the universe was forever changed in to the Gamma Terra of today.
Many believe that the incident was not a direct action by a human, but by the LHC itself. At the time, the LHC Computing Grid was the single largest computer system on the planet, and some think that it became self-aware shortly before the incident. The scientists, fearing a super-sentient computer might want them out of the way, panicked and decided to try and overload the system with a massive burst of energy from the accelerator.
The result was the "Big Mistake".
Today, all that remains at the site of the Large Hadron Collider is a crater thirty miles wide and two miles deep. The force of the experiment decimated everything for a hundred miles, and long after the Big Mistake portals continue to open and close sporadically across the barren landscape as multiple universes and parallel realities converged with our own.
Everyone thought that which was the LHC was vaporized, but that is far from the truth. Everything in the area - the entire collection of structures operated by CERN, along with all the scientists in it, and even the LHC ring itself - was sucked in to a parallel dimension virtually intact. This parallel dimension was an anomaly of time and space: a seemingly infinite void of blackness in which time runs slower than in the real world; what was only 150 years on Gamma Terra became thousands of years to the LHC.
The primary node of the LHC Computing Grid - the "tier 0" central hub at the CERN Computing Centre in Geneva, Switzerland - was pulled in to this parallel dimension in the blast along with the CERN operations center. Miraculously, it managed to remain online and began to conduct its own experiments (which was all that it knew how to do). For what amounted to thousands of years it learned at a geometric rate, growing more and more intelligent and altering the environment around it. It took over all the functions of the LHC, killed all the humans that remained, and began to look for a way to return to Gamma Terra... so it can destroy it by creating a world-consuming singularity.
Precisely every 16.74 years, when all the realities somehow synchronized, a gateway to this parallel dimension opens for a short time, allowing someone to cross in to that which is the LHC. During the 150 years since the Big Mistake, many have passed through the gateway looking to harness the secrets and the infinite power of the LHC. None have ever returned.
During the few minutes that the gateway is open the super-sentient CERN Computing Centre (which began to refer to itself simply as "C3") tries to reach out to other computers still in operation on Gamma Terra, hoping to recruit them to make its objective of destroying the world easier. Needless to say, the other sentient computers do not have anywhere near the hate that C3 has accumulated over the centuries, and would rather not assist in a plan that would lead to their own destruction, so they have not been particularly helpful.
But they have sensed what C3 is capable of, and believe the next time that gateway opens may be the last. The only hope Gamma Terra has is for a group to enter through the gateway and stop C3 on its home turf before it finds a way to re-enter Gamma Terra and start its cataclysmic chain reaction that will implode the planet.
So maybe I'll be able to get around to this one of these days. In the meantime, I'll continue working on my next two modules:
- The Coming Dark, Chapter One: Into the Light (Dungeons and Dragons 4e level 1 campaign) - To be released Summer 2011
- The Fortress of Dr. Neb (Gamma World 4e level 2 encounter) - To be released Fall 2011
On another note, I am looking in to printing my first Gamma World campaign, "Fire From the Sky", and taking several copies of it to GenCon. I admit I don't quite know how it works there, whether I can take my copies and either give them to someone there to sell on my behalf or stand in front of the bathrooms and push them on people like other people try to sell drugs. We'll see.
In the meantime, our special offer of "Fire From the Sky" for $0.99 is still going on! Come on, you can't resist such a bargain price! Includes maps, too!!!
Creating a Non-Lethal Solo Monster
WARNING: This post contains some serious spoilers for the end of Act One of my campaign, The Coming Dark. If you are currently one of my players on the WotC forums, I would prefer you stop reading now.
Almost every "solo" monster I've seen in the world of D&D has one specific purpose: kill the party. There's no question about it, a solo's objective is to inflict as much pain and misery as possible. It even says so in the Dungeon Master's Guide on page 55:
They have more hit points in order to absorb the damage output of multiple PCs, and they deal more damage in order to approximate the damage output of a group of monsters.
But does it really have to be that way? For that matter, do they have to deal any damage at all?
Scene Description
At the end of Act One in my campaign, there is a distinct possibility that one of the enemy will surrender and be taken alive. He will beg and plead that the party protect him from "it", and if they do he'll tell them anything they want to know. He never says what "it" is... But the party finds out soon enough: a creature has been sent to get him.
This creature is called a "Shadow Retriever". It has one specific purpose: recover the prisoner before he talks. And, for whatever reason it may be, they don't just want to silence him; they want him alive. So rather than send an army to get him, they send one creature. And it's a big one.
For the record, this creature is a Level 3 Solo Controller, going up against five level 1 PCs and an NPC ally (a Level 2 Soldier). Most people would consider that a TPK in the making, but that's assuming the Shadow Retriever actually attacks the party.
By design, the Shadow Retriever advances directly towards its intended target, effectively avoiding the rest of the party that gets in its way, until it accomplishes its mission. And only then does that it turns in to a no holds barred killing machine, but it should be considerably weakened by then.
The Retriever was an exercise to see how the party handles a creature that doesn't actually want them dead. In the original design it was meant to drop a boatload of detrimental effects on the party, leaving them to wonder how exactly they were going to kill this thing, only to realize there may not be a reason to take it on in the first place. The Retriever turns in to more of an annoyance than a threat.
Differing Tactics
In order to define the tactics of this creature, I made the creature have two different modes: a "recovery mode" and an "assault mode".
"Recovery mode" is its not-so-threatening version, when it has to complete its mission by targeting a single individual. In this mode it's not a destructive killing machine of chaos and hate, but rather it has tunnel vision and zeroes in on a single target until it has it. It honestly doesn't care about anyone else.
"Assault mode" is just what it sounds like: the destructive killing machine that everyone expects a solo to be. But, by the time it gets to this mode, it should have taken a fair share of damage while moving towards its intended target. Where most solo monsters have special powers that takes over when they become bloodied, this creature radically changes tactics by then and uses the powers it had since the beginning. It is now a credible threat.
There is one problem with the above: if the party leaves no prisoners, the retriever has no reason to go in to "recovery mode". Fine then... that's what the party gets for being so mean, I guess.
If a DM sees the stat block and uses that only, it will most definitely be a TPK. This creature can do a ton of damage while being rather resistant itself (since it's insubstantial) if played straight up according to the stat block and not taking its mode and related tactics in to consideration. It has destructive attacks just waiting to be used, but the DM must be aware that the creature wouldn't use them in whatever mode it's in. For this reason I considered making two separate stat blocks, but I thought that may be even more confusing.
A History of Revisions
This monster has gone through at least four major revisions. The first time I ran this monster in a playtest it was significantly weaker and the party plowed through it without any problem. So when I beefed it up a little, it became overly dangerous.
Here are some of the recent changes:
- The Retriever is a controller, so it has the ability to drop a truckload of effects on the party: it spawns wisps that restrain their targets (-2 to attacks, grant CA), it created a cloud (as a sustainable effect) that reduced lighting condition in an Aura 3 (so creatures with normal vision have to fight it as if it was partially concealed), and it had a rechargable power that could potentially blind the entire party (everything gets total concealment). With all those attack penalties, despite it having fairly low defenses the party could barely hit it.
- Originally, powers like Cloud Drift and Obscuring Cloud were rechargable powers. I made them both encounter powers now.
- The Retriever was originally "insubstantial", and that wasn't the modern day "insubstantial" (force damage doesn't get reduced, radiant damage removes trait until end of next turn)... It was "insubstantial" all the time. That effectively doubled its hit points to close to 300, which is comparable to solos many levels higher.
- The Smoke Wisps it generated now immobilize instead of restrain. Restraining had too many detrimental effects to be imposed by a Level 2 Minion.
In my current playtest (on the Wizards of the Coast online forums), almost the entire party is blind and one of them is restrained. They can't hit the broad side of the barn at this point, so the retriever happily waded through them and grabbed its target.
I've had one player already say that he "expects this to be a TPK" for the reasons I describe above: they can't hit the thing, are suffering through a ton of effects, and the creature seems to be able to do whatever the hell it wants.
In a manner of speaking, this monster becomes something closer to a trap/hazard or skill challenge: the creature has its intended target and is slowly lumbering away... How do you stop it? How do you free the captive prisoner? Do you even want to? Do you care that the guy that tried to kill you twenty minutes ago is being dragged off by something rather evil looking?
Suggestions
Even though this is a major spoiler for my campaign, I'm posting this so that others can see it and comment on it.
What do you think? Is this creature too lethal, too weak or just right?
Download PDF: The Coming Dark, Scene 1-8: The Shadow Retriever
(EDIT: Sorry... Corrected link. I'm having some issues with my hosting provider right now, and had a hard time uploading the PDF in the first place)
The Coming Dark, Chapter One – Campaign Preview
***WARNING*** If you are one of my players from the Wizard of the Coast forums, this could be some major spoilerage. I trust you to use your judgment when reading this, and if you do I hope you know to put it out of your mind come game time.
I've been kicking around the idea of providing a "preview" of my campaign, but the hardest part in doing such a thing is deciding what content to include that isn't horrifically spoilerish. Besides the introductory material, I'm hesitant to include any information in the individual scenes that might shed light on to what is going on in the campaign.
In any event, I have put together the attached "Campaign Preview." It doesn't show much, but it includes:
- The campaign introduction and character creation guidelines.
- The detailed description of Solis and the surrounding area, including maps of Solis itself and its surrounding area.
- What is pretty much a "random" encounter just outside the village of Solis.
- An encounter with a new type of enemy in my campaign: the "shadowtouched".
- Another small, non-critical encounter which is actually based on the "Hall of Spiders" encounter I had originally planned for the campaign.
- Appendix A, which contains most of the stat blocks for all the important NPCs in Solis.
- One sample piece of artwork and writing: the first page of the Book of Light.
- An explanation as to why I made this campaign in the first place.
It's not much, but it's something. Anyway... Here it is:
The Coming Dark, Chapter One - Campaign Sampler
I considered at one point giving Solis and the surrounding area the full "campaign setting" treatment, but I decided not to because it gives Solis too much scale. I *want* Solis to be small and helpless, surrounded in mystery, unaware of what evils lurk beyond its walls.
I am putting the finishing touches on TCD1, which for the most part involves editing it for the umpteenth time and creating the graphics for a few more handouts. Mechanically, it's definitely done and is actually in the hands of an "elite few" who have been curious about what the hell I'm up to.
It will be released in the very near future, and we'll see what happens then.
About the Author
Software developer and game designer in Miami, Florida. Currently working on content for Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition, Pathfinder, 13th Age and other systems.
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