hexagonal awareness month

March is Hexagonal Awareness Month.  Given tabletop roleplaying games have history with this shape, this month features some posts in tribute to this paragon of polygons.

As an aperitif, please find enclosed the One Page Hexcrawl Template assembled with help from the brilliant Inkscape Boardgame Generator add-in from Pelle Nilsson (with a little help on installing courtesy of Alex Schroeder of Campaign Wiki fame).

It's not all hexagons, lots of other parties this month!  March also features GM Day/Mardi Gras (same day naturally), Read an RPG in Public Week and Pi Day.  Plenty to be getting on with...

doing it differently and growing pie

We like pie.

I read with interest Mike Mearls' article on the past and the future of Dungeons & Dragons.  There have been a variety of responses appearing in the blogosphere.  Wizards have a chequered history of fan interaction and organised play including mixed messages about fan sites, tiered organised play bias toward larger FLGS and forcing customers to register with their site to make a simple e-mail query.  They have made significant progress with online community and D&D Encounters.  Other industry players offer alternative views, involving active engagement with players and adapting existing assets to new formats.  Yet Wizards have got  a few tricks up their sleeve yet, as we shall see.

Next to Games Workshop's offices in sunny Lenton is Warhammer World.  Statues of Space Marines flank the car park and appear at various points.  The experience is one part theme park, one part game convention and happens every day barring Christmas Day, Easter and New Year's Day.  An indoor courtyard in faux medieval has gaming tables set up.  There is a sizable game store stocked with goods and dioramas of exquisitely painted miniatures. Admission is free.  This as well as store-based promotions, conventions and events in GW stores worldwide.  Compare with the typical convention.

Then of course, there's e-publishing of gaming materials.  Bits & Mortar offer an innovative approach to PDF and print bundles which has seen takeup by industry and FLGS alike. While D&D novels are being e-published, the books used to play aren't.  This is despite the success of publishers like Paizo or Open Design. Online vendors like Lulu offer this service to companies like Green Ronin.  I suspect with the introduction of DDI, there's a shift from paper to electronic format mirroring Adamant's experience of app pricing.  It may explain FLGS concerns over digital initiatives such as Virtual Table Top.  Where are they in this vision of the future?

To address this, Wizards are talking of growing pie for D&D (shades of Alice!) using electronic tools citing experiences with online and console versions of Magic: The Gathering.  Yet those instances were complete games rather than 'optional' add-ins.  A better analogy would be seeing what impact sales experienced after  D&D Tiny Adventures or D&D Online.  Atari announced a Neverwinter MMO project last August yet many at DDXP were surprised, and a recent Eurogamer interview refers to a console-based dungeon crawl called Daggerdale.  These may draw some new blood into the hobby from curious MMO players.

The introduction of theme-related modular board games (e.g. Castle Ravenloft, Wrath of Ashardalon) is redolent of Talisman but using iconic D&D elements.  While entertaining games in their own right, they don't build on the D&D experience any more than Dungeon! did back in the '70s.  It wil give the FLGS something to sell while running running Essentials-driven D&D Encounters, introducing new settings and card-based systems.  While I'm not excited by Fortune Cards or The Despair Deck, it's encouraging that the Wizards Play Network is extending more support to D&D,

Wizards have a lot of data to analyse via the Character Builder and express caution over relentlessly publishing core game books announced at DDXP having learned an endless stream of hardbacks with errata alienates players who use a fraction of what's published.  Mearls' call for unity seems confusing until you realise this data is exclusive to DDI subscribers, a shrinking demographic amid tabletop RPG sales.  By inviting outsiders to the table, this introduces new blood into the community.  It's ironic the new blood includes some of the oldest fans of the game.  It remains to be seen whether the strategy will be successful.

apologetics now - the softback revolution

The paradox of choice bedevils those confronted by variety.  Exponents of world cuisine buffets know this.  It was a similar situation for 4E D&D players, a profusion of classes and builds for each class made for tricky choices modified by races, hybrid characters and more.  Add options in additional core books, core classes in non-core books (Et tu, Swordmage?) and a steady stream of errata.  Then add D&D Insider with exclusive tools and character classes including the Assassin. The overhead for the game is significant despite potential re-use and proved intimidating to new players.

So this year Wizards released D&D Essentials Red Box as a gateway to the hobby.  This is a good thing.  Other Essential boxes are forthcoming (Heroes of the Fallen Lands, Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms, DM's Toolkit and Monster Vault) to expand the horizons of new players. Maybe less endearing for those who've already invested in 4E are scheduled Essentials products.  Bill Slaviscek explains in a recent Ampersand column.

We're not talking about anything earth-shattering; rather, numbers have been tweaked here and there to make creatures more challenging, or powers have been given more interesting and dynamic effects.

Of course this tweaking extends to player characters - the slayer and knight are versions of the great weapon and guardian fighter. The new build for the druid goes further, losing the wild shape class feature.  While Core Rules and Essentials are compatible, it's clear Essentials is the future for D&D which may annoy those who invested in the last bookshelf.

Future releases include in February 2011, the Class Compendium: Heroes of Sword and Spell which converts five classes in the 4E Player's Handbook (cleric, fighter, rogue,  warlord and wizard) into Essentials format.  March 2011's Players' Options: Heroes of Shadow brings the once-exclusive assassin, the necromancer and the hexblade to the table.  Other Essential softbacks with the remaining classes will probably follow - Class Compendium: Heroes of Legend appeas a likely candidate.

As for that simplified game promised by the new Red Box?  Enjoy while it lasts.  There's a whole new bookshelf on the way!