The Echoes of Heaven Developer’s Journal

Critical Matters

2:08 am July 24th, 2008

I finished writing Critical Matters tonight. Thank goodness. 1728 critical results later and he rested. Whew!

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The GSL came out today. It’s pretty much exactly what they told us it would be. I’m happy with it. I can produce what I want to produce. I might not be able to do it exactly the way I want to do it, but I think I can accomplish everything I want. I’ll probably need to produce new versions of two of the races, because editing the existing ones is disallowed, but that isn’t too much of a hardship. The absolute worst case scenario is that I can’t cut a few aspects, and that’s would require some IP changes, but none of them would destroy me. They’d just be annoying.

So it looks like everything is good going forward.
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General 4th Edition Stuff

10:54 pm June 7th, 2008

I hit a landmark moment today. I converted the teaser and two NPCs from product 3 to 4th edition for the Wednesday group. That’s actually probably enough to fill Wednesday since I’m sure we won’t have all the characters converted by the time the game starts, but I intend to finish at least Act One as well, and that should easily fill a whole session’s worth of encounters.

I got to raise existing monsters to higher levels and create two NPCs. I like the focused NPC system. Get the crap out of the way and just get the stuff down that will matter. It’s a good system, I think. I haven’t done Morthorn or the Warlord yet. Those might take some extra time.

Then I have to fly immediately back into Product One. We intend to playtest that in 4th this weekend (just the mechanics, might take two weekends, really).

So there’s that.

Let’s talk about general stuff that I see when I look at 4th edition.

I need to rescale the adventures onto the Rolemaster/HARP scale (meaning 3rd - 30th instead of 2nd - 20th). 4th edition ends at 30. When I thought epic was going to suck, I was happy to leave the levels alone, but now I think epic will work well in Echoes, and people are going to expect it. Besides, The Moving Shadow might be the most epic thing I’ve ever written.

Alignment was my happiest discovery in 4th edition. It’s getting so close to what I envision in Echoes, now I will only need minor notes.

I haven’t decided about treasure yet. In 3.5 I pulled back on the treasure levels. I will probably still do that in 4th, but I don’t think nearly as much. Unless we ban people from making magic items, they’ll have them anyway. Might as well let them. Besides, the amount of treasure I gave out isn’t THAT far off, I just have to look at how the levels match up with the parties.

I think that will be all my notes for this time. I have pneumonia. I need to go to bed.

Good night.

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The Races, Part One

1:07 am June 6th, 2008

I think that I’ll start a series of posts where I discuss Echoes and 4th edition and how they mesh together. I’ll start the ball rolling tonight:

The Dragonborn: They don’t really fit the setting. Some game tables will still want them, but as a race, they are not canon and there’s no place to add them. However, if a player really wants to be one, and isn’t afraid to roleplay the handicap of being a race that looks like a monster, they could be something created in an Ulcer. Its even possible the character has documents from the Church stating he’s has no Infernal Taint and its illegal to burn him at the stake. Won’t stop it from happening if he isn’t careful, but it could be an interesting story to play, if one doesn’t mind the challenges. Still, not recommended and not canon.

And I’m looting their stat bonuses for High Men. And doing a slightly different version of one of their racial features for the High Man as well.

The Dwarves: The Dwarves work fine with Echoes. Just add a Divine Spark to their race description and you’re good to go.

The Elves: The Elves work fine, probably for both Wood Elves and Grey Elves, as their abilities don’t lock them in to any one interpretation, unless I’ve missed one.

The High Elves/The Eladrin: The Eladrin work well for the High Elves in Echoes, assuming you divorce them from the 4th ed fluff. The one caveat is that we need to adjust their racial teleportation power. Giving something like that to every member of the race goes against the grain of Echoes. Still, an easy change, we can even keep the spirit of the original power.

Half Elves: There are no Half Elves in Echoes. And I’m raiding one of their abilities for High Men. (GSL willing)

Gnomes: The Gnomes, in the Monster Manual, work well if you take away their illusion power. Still, with a little adjustment we can keep the power’s spirit and not wreck the feel of the setting. We’ll need to add in racial feats, so that Gnome players aren’t shafted on the character choices.

Halflings: Other than the cultural stuff, there’s no reason to change anything about Halflings.

That’s all for tonight. I’ll try to keep these coming. Look for more tomorrow.

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An Exciting New Announcement

9:02 pm June 5th, 2008

Thanks for taking time out of your 4th edition release parties to read this message.

I received the go ahead today on a new product. So I’d like to announce an upcoming Final Redoubt product, and possibly a new line of products.

It’s an audiobook called Death by Cliché. It’s about a young game designer who’s shot in the head by a looney fan (you know who you are), and ends up inside of the worst game of all time. It’s a comedy, and we’ve already recorded the first episode.

Best of all, it’s free.

I’ll likely release it through a second site so as not to interfere with the bandwidth on finalredoubt.com It will be a series of weekly podcasts. I’ll probably release the first one after we have five in the can, to cover emergencies.

For the idea of releasing it as an audiobook, I have to give a nod to my good friend Howard Tayler of www.schlockmercenary.com. I passed him some chapters at a con because I wanted a humorist’s opinion and he suggest I do a podcast audiobook. As an advocate of the free content business model, it’s his example that made me seriously consider it and his support that made it happen.

I don’t have a firm release date yet, but I’ll keep you apprised as we move forward.

Until then, enjoy.

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Interesting Times

12:46 am June 2nd, 2008

All right. So the time of D&D 4th edition is upon us. This weekend I managed to see real, honest to God copies. I got to browse and peruse and start to build my opinion of and strategy for 4th edition. There’s really enough information out there that my 4th edition Skunkworks is in full glory now.

So my reactions?

Echoes is designed from the point of view of a man who loves Rolemaster. I’ve played the game for years and you can see its mark on the setting. The Churches, the lack of detect-good style abilities. The races. Echoes fit well with 3.5. It took some changes, but no more than Ravenloft, and 3.5 was designed to be versatile. It took the changes well. I was pleased.

4th edition frightened me.

I’m not talking about when I saw the books. You’ll have to read on for that. It frightened me because of the direction it seemed to move in. I was afraid that it would be much harder to fit into my world. The points of light scared me. The healing and powers scared me. I was afraid that it would be a difficult fit, and all of the adjustments would be painful at best.

But honestly, from a company standpoint, I can’t not try. We’re talking about a nearly level playing field and a potential buying frenzy. I have to be in. I’d be a full not to.

So I saw the books. I played a demo.

First of all, the books put me at ease. I was terrified of Epic, and yet I found only one ability there that stretched credulity in my world, and it was in the hand of the Arch Mage, which, lets face it, we expect to be pretty darn magical. Even the demigod seems to fit well for a character if the GM agrees that he’s played his path to sainthood properly. Of course, this cut a potential product from my line (I was going to do an book of epic destinies that didn’t suck), but it might still be viable. The epic destinies in the PHB are slim pickings. There could be room for more, depending on how all the WotC splat books look.

Second, the very idea of churches seems to have changed. A cleric doesn’t have to be the same religion as his god. A paladin has to start that way, but he doesn’t have to stay that way. They even insinuate that paladins can go renegade and end up with their entire orders chasing them, trying to end the blasphemy. Best yet, when this happens, THEY DON’T LOSE THEIR POWERS.

Some of this probably has to do with the structure of the rules. You strip powers from a 4th edition character and he isn’t even a proper PC anymore. Do you have him just gain fighter powers? The ones the fighter worked so hard to achieve? No, powers in 4th ed are EVERYTHING. You can’t take them away.

But with one or two minor notes, this fit exactly the feel I was going for in Echoes.

I was worried about the martial powers (exploits), but they don’t seem out of control. Some are cinematic, sure, but most of them seem reasonable, even believable in the hands of a real hero.

I’ll get into my notes on specifics when I get the books on Friday, but suffice it to say, I think it’s going to work fabulously.

There’s so much I don’t fully understand yet. I’m pretty sure Demons of Sin will be solo monsters, as will angels. Elemental Wraiths? I don’t know. I think so. They are meant to cover multiple roles, but I haven’t really had a chance to dig into monster theory (I spent very little time in the MM). We’ll see.

We start play testing The Throne of God a week from Saturday. We’ve already played it in that group, so we should be able to skip all the roleplaying and hit everything mechanics-wise one after another. I expect to finish it in one or two nights.

But I also played a demo.

This has a minor spoiler, so I’m going to warn you now. Stop reading if you don’t want to know.

The thing about every game I’ve played in is that the game can’t really surprise me. 3.5? There might be a power I run into in the game I haven’t seen before, but I understand all the rules. I know everything about combat. When somebody hits me with a spell I haven’t seen, I can tell you exactly how to best handle the situation. A wraith hiding in the wall? No problem. You know all you options in combat and you know everyone else’s as well. No surprises.

Same with Rolemaster. Same with HARP. Same with HERO. Rules. I’m a master of the rules. I have to be.

So I’m fighting these kobolds. I’m playing the wizard. I slip into the sweet spot where I can lay down a blast three on three of the little buggers and make them hate life. One drops, the other two are almost bloodied. Not bad for a first level wizard and I can still use a power every round. Ain’t that neat?

Then the kobolds move up to me. Three of them. Now I can’t cast without opportunity attacks, I don’t have a spell that doesn’t provoke them. No worries. I’ll five foot step. They call it shifting now. I’ll shift one square away. Sure, they can do the same on their turn. I won’t cast a spell this round. I’ll use the action to shift a second time.

I shift a square. And the little buggers do too. I shift another, and so do they. Ah hell. How do they do that? I’m still adjacent. They’re stuck to me. Now I’ve made one of them stuck to the rogue too.

I was completely caught off guard. That’s not something you can do in the rules. I read them. How did they do it?

They have a power. Its called dragonshield tactics. Not all of them have it, but those little kobolds have trained especially to shift up to and away from foes in combat.

I’d read the stuff about “simple rules, many exceptions” before. I hadn’t understood the implications. You see, people can pull tricks on you in combat. Ambushes. Shifting sides. These are all story events. The combat itself is always so regimented that I know the laws of physics. They are VERY simple. You watch movies and see interesting things happen and you think, “that could never happen in an RPG.” You’re still probably right, but now even the rules can surprise you.

This, BTW, is one of the reasons I’ve always loved Rolemaster. Criticals can be very startling.

Now, I don’t know. When I go into these fights, I have my handful of powers and so do the bad guys. They can do things I don’t expect. They can surprise me. It’s been so long since I’ve been surprised like that in combat, that I didn’t know how to feel. I still have warm fuzzies.

We kicked butt. I shouted orders at the rogue. “Shift every round.” “But they’ll follow!” “Decisions! Force them to make decisions.” I managed to get one of them to move adjacent to our fighter, who had been immobilized but could still fight. This will be one of my favorite battles of all time, and it’s because it was so completely unexpected. I had the rules of the game rise up against me. The RULES. And I won. Some guy in Redmond through me a curve ball and I managed to get a piece of it. It was a small battle, but I can remember very few where, at the end, I’d felt like I’d accomplished so much.

So the thing is, I’ve got to bring this into Echoes. Wind Wraiths should be able to do cool things. A Demon of Deciet needs to have some tricky abilities in addition to his spells. It’s all got to be interesting and neat and crunchy.

I’ve got the Skunkworks working already. I’m throwing you a curve ball.

Make me proud.