Deal of the Day - Expedition to Castle Ravenloft (3e)

I always really enjoyed the original Ravenloft by the Hickmans. It was different than the standard AD&D adventures of the time. BBEG had real motivation and history. I never owned Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, as I never ran 3e.

Expedition to Castle Ravenloft is today's Deal of the Day. Normally 14.99 in PDF, until tomorrow morning, it is on sale for 3.60

Based on the classic adventure by Tracy and Laura Hickman, the Expedition to Castle Ravenloft campaign adventure updates the original 1st Edition "Ravenloft" module, retaining the Gothic flavor and familiar elements while expanding and reimagining some of the locations to create a deeper, richer adventure experience. This adventure is designed for characters of levels 6-10 and features a new, easy-to-use combat encounter format. This book also presents new magic items, feats, and prestige classes for player characters. 

 

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Goodman Games 3e PDF Sale - 1 / 3 / 5 Bucks a Pop (Most are a Buck)

I received the following email earlier today:

All Goodman Games 3E PDF E-Books Are On Sale! Most are only $1.00! Exclusively at RPGNow.com!

Remember the era of D&D third edition and the D20 license? Whether you called it D20, 3E, 3.5, or something else, it was a good time to be a gamer. It was one of the most fruitful eras in the history of role-playing, where thousands of gamers came back to the fold! And a time when publishers released an astounding array of creative content. (And a couple real duds, but that wasn't us, we swear!)

Goodman Games is celebrating that era this month with our 3E Throwback Sale! All of our third edition titles are on sale and most are only $1.00! Visit the sale page now!

That's right! Most of our 3E PDF e-books are only ONE DOLLAR! And a couple of the bigger hardbacks are $3 and boxed sets are only $5!

Link to the Goodman Games sale.

I've converted Goodman 3e adventures to S&W on the fly in the past and plan to make some additions to my Goodman Games collection with this sale.

Today wound up being a day of sales and freebies ;)

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D&D Tools Website Falls to a WotC "Cease & Desist"

I'm going to post the link to what's left at the D&D Tools website as well as their latest (last?) post, but I'd like to make some observations first.

The D&D Tools website was up for 5 years and it's only now that WotC has gotten around to a "Cease & Desist."

It's not like it was a hidden website. It's Alexa ranking is 114,870. For comparison purposes, ENWorld comes in at 44,688 and The Tavern at 237,743. It's highly doubtful that WotC had no idea that D&D Tools existed. (Google is, of course, #1)

Is it that the 3x era OGL rules that were referenced were too close to 5e? Or was there a fear that the current OGL could allow D&D Tools to replicate the 5e rules?

Just some thoughts. In any case, here's the last post at the D&D Tools site...

D&D Tools – End of an Era...

Hello everyone,

TGG here. As you have probably gathered, we have received a Cease and Desist letter from WotC (well, from a law company under WotC rule). I'd like to take some time now to comment on this.

I started D&D tools some five years ago as a tool for me to find "all the feats that affect criticals". From then, it grew up a lot, both in content and audience.

At the time of this letter, the site served roughly 1.000.000 pages a week.

100 races.

500 items.

1.000 classes.

3.000 feats.

5.000 spells.

Everything was interlinked with each other. Feats listed requirements as links. You could find what a class had for prerequisite and click it right away. Wanted to know what spells are there available for a class in campaign settings? No problem. Lots and lots of filtering and searching.

At November 14, 2014, I've received a letter requesting that we put the site down. As of now I have to comply, since I have neither time nor law skills nor resources to do otherwise. Also, I'm not allowed to post the letter itself here.

... about future?

First of all, the site itself is open source project. The sources are my intellectual property and I'm free to share them as I wish. About a year ago I created a repository at github – https://github.com/dndtools/dndtools. The setup notes might not be up to date, but it's possible to get it running with OGL contents. Since it was there long before the C&D letter, I feel free to share the knowledge.

Second, there is also great mobile app for android a Google Play (sorry iPhone users). It comes with full OGL contents. If you are friends with Uncle Google or Web Archive, you might even find a more interesting database for it. I myself cannot claim to be the creator of it, so please do give some love to the author on the app page!

Third, since the sources codes are available for public use and the database itself was distributed among users, there is nothing in my power to prevent others to try to resurrect the site.

Final words

I want to thank very much to all the people who put a lot of effort to see the site grow! Without you, it could never have grown into what it did. Thanks!

I'd also like to say something to WotC. The game you created is great. I spend a lot of time playing it. You have moved to 4e and then 5e. Why do you try to destroy what your fans have created? Things that can help players, that encourages them to play more? (I'm talking about all the sites that went down over the years) You'd better invest the money into creating something yourself than to spend it on law companies...

tgg out.

Free D&D Adventure - Murder in Baldur's Gate (3.5 / 4e / Next)

Can't pick a winner in the edition wars? Grab Murder in Baldur's Gate for 3 flavors of D&D - "Dead but lives forever", "Dying before it was even released" and finally - "Longest gestation period ever.".

From the WotC blurb:

The Murder in Baldur's Gate Launch Event took place August 17-18, designed to kick off the 2013 August – November season of the D&D Encounters official play program:

Duke Adrian Abdel is a living legend in the city of Baldur’s Gate, and much of the city has gathered to celebrate him and his accomplishments. On this day of festivities, though, the duke’s past will finally catch up with him—with dire consequences. Murder has returned to Baldur's Gate, and brave heroes are the city’s only hope to stop the violence.

This scenario, like the complete Murder in Baldur’s Gate adventure, is playable with three versions of D&D: 3rd Edition (v.3.5), 4th Edition, and the D&D Next playtest rules. At the end of the session, players face a choice, and their decision will impact what experience they have in the upcoming D&D Encounters season, in which the full adventure plays out.

Are Your PCs Disposable Heroes?

I'm an OSR type of guy, and I had a conversation with a 4E playing friend on Google+ earlier today.  When i told him (in reference to a statement from "Greg" who was asking the 5e designers questions about 5e) that I couldn't comprehend planning a character 20 levels in advance, he told me that is because in 3e and 4e, player characters are no longer "disposable" like in the earlier editions of D&D.

Were your PCs all that disposable in earlier editions?  Mine weren't.  I was attached to them, and even have a collection of my original "Goldenrod" character sheets.  My first character (AD&D) died before he hit level 6 (poor Cyrus the Fighter), but Striker the Paladin hit 17 (complete with a Monte Hall collection of goodies) with just one death in his early teens - thank the gods for Resurrection spells, as all they recovered were a few of his bones after the battle.

The thing is, in my classic time of playing, especially in my college years, few campaigns made it to name level, let alone beyond.  It wasn't from lack of time to play, it was due in large part to the awesome number of choices to play.  TSR releasing settings faster then 2e splatbooks meant lots of starts, stops, reboots and the such.

Still, death was always there for the PCs.  Each campaign suffered PC death, but by the time the players hit 6th or 7th level they were usually well enough equipped that death was rare, and usually climatic if it happened (and party resources often meant a Raise Dead or such would right the wrong assuming there was no TPK).  Reaching name level was a huge accomplishment, both for time invested and in player skill.  

No player in any game I played in, even in the Monte Hall games of my youth, ever reached level 20, let alone thought about their power and abilities at that point in your character's career.  Which, I guess is where we have our failure to see.

In the OSR, you start at first level and struggle to gain expo, gold, fame, levels, magic, etc and each level is a highpoint.

In the later editions, you know what you plan to be when you reach level 20, and spend your character's career walking the predestined path to get there.  In some ways, you're starting at level 20 and looking back the whole time, or at least that's how I see it.

In the OSR, your character is always looking forward.

Strange that the new looks back, and the old looks forward.