The future of D&D and RPGs

And interesting article from an insider explaining why the RPG business is in trouble and some thoughts about where it may go from here.

Here be dragons

My eldest daughter is sending me a copy of this abstract strategy game called Dragon face that she thought I'd like.

And while the game doesn't contain dragons (the name apparently refers to the art on the "emperor" piece), it did get me thinking about how much of a fan of dragons I am. There may be no easier way to get me to cough up a few bucks than to make sure your game design includes a few dragons! And I'm not even that much of a fantasy gamer, really, but I have a soft spot for dragons.

There are, of course, dragons prominently featured in all the Dungeons and Dragons branded games and I have dragons in D&D Miniatures, D&D Conquest of Nerath, D&D Castle Ravenloft, D&D The Legend of Drizzt, D&D The Wrath of Ashardalon (Arshadalon is the dragon) and the Heroscape system D&D Underdark game. And there are dragon in the main Heroscape game, too. I have a drake among my Lost Worlds books and there are dragons scattered among the various Magic: The Gathering decks, but I also got the duel deck that features dragons vs. knights. There are dragons in Dreamblade, Wizard Kings and Small World. Most of my dragons are the western concept ones (with wings) but I do have a couple of really handsome painted Chinese style one for Arcane Legions. The game is middling but the dragons look great. I even have a ship named Dragon in Axis & Allies War at Sea! That is, however, actually named after the type of mounted soldier called a dragoon in English.

Still, few things will spice up things than a large, awesome dragon. In some games, such as Small World, the dragons are just bit players, but they have a more properly dragon-like prominence in Conquest of Nerath and the other D&D games and I always try to get one in my army when I'm playing Wizard Kings. Oddly enough, the one fantasy game where dragons don't play much of a role is the War of the Ring. While Smaug famously was central in The Hobbit, Tolkien didn't depict any dragons taking part in the Lord of the Ring events (although the Fell beasts were somewhat draco-like) which is one small disappointment I had with the work. There's no indication in Tolkien that dragons were extinct or that Smaug was the last one, but it appears they stood aloof from the contest. Still, it would have been nice to have one make a cameo!

Dungeons & Dragons meets Axis & Allies?

Conquest of Nerath

One wonders after seeing the promotional pictures just released by WOTC.

It looks like an A&A-style global conquest game simply set in a fantasy universe.

Dead collectible games -- what are they good for? Part II

Part II of my pondering (pawndering?) on the retained usefulness of out-of-print collectible games.

Dungeons & Dragons Miniatures
I backed into this one, after picking up a few miniatures and finding out that that my stepson liked playing. It's a decent little skirmish-level wargame and has the added advantage of being usable for role-playing as well, should I ever decide to get back into that. I didn't go too far into the game, ending up with just about 200 figures, which is enough for my local purposes. The competitive scene was already winding down when I first got into the game and so that never played much of a role in my purchases. DDM doesn't take up too much space (a couple of shoebox-sized boxes and a map tube) so its relatively low-impact as far as space and trouble goes and I'll probably keep it unless I have to move out-of-town. Its probably not worth shipping off in that situation.

Navia Dratp

Another relatively low-impact game space wise, Navia Dratp is really an odd duck. It really is a good game, as the high ratings it gets from people on Boardgmae Geek who've tried it attest. But it was probably one of the worst-marketed games in history. Between the strange theme, the tongue-twisting terms and obscure names it's amazing anyone bought it. But the worst aspect of the marketing plan was making it a collectible game. It really wasn't necessary. Unlike the open-ended universe of D&D or Dreamblade, or even the finite but large potential of Axis & Allies , it's hard to see how the game could have supported hundreds of different figures or dozens of expansions even if it had taken off. It turned out to be a moot point, however, as the game bit the dust as the second expansion came out and in effect it turned into the expandable games= it probably should have been in the first place. It really is quite good, however, and because my collection is big enough to support two players with a wide variety of units this remains a keeper -- even if I move.

Lord of the Rings Tradeable Miniatures Game

I liked the miniatures and the theme, but the game was rather ordinary as far as fun and interest go, and since its been discontinued I've had a very hard time getting it on the table. While it was still a supported system there was a game shop that hosted some gaming in it but that dried up and despite multiple attempts since this one just can't provoke any interest. I'm probably going to give up and unload this one as not worth the space devoted to it. Over the years I've been pretty ruthless about culling wargames that can't make the cut of getting table-time and one thing I've learned is that once it's gone I rarely miss it. In the case of LOTR I do like the miniatures and the game system is OK, but I don't like them enough to stare at them unplayed. Better they find a home elsewhere. It's really too bad, because I did build up a pretty decent collection overall, with a few hundred figures. There's room in my game room for a handful of games that may not get played much or at all, but not much. None of my usual reasons of nostalgia, study or historical interest apply in this case and so these guys are eBay bound.

Oh Oh. End of the line for A&A minis?

This announcement that WOTC will "depart pre-painted plastic miniatures, " while not directly addressing the Axis & Allies miniatures lines, is quite worrisome for the future of those offerings.

I had strongly suspected that Counter-Offensive was likely the last set we'd see for the Land Miniatures. It would be unfortunate if the Late War set never came out as there are a few gaps in the line that could use filling, but it wouldn't be a disaster.

On the other hand, it seemed like we had a firm commitment for at least a couple of more sets of the naval game and the gaps left in that lkine are more serious as Rich Baker seemed to be deliberatley holding onto some units for later sets. An abrupt cessation of the line would be very bad in that case.

It may be too early to "panic" but Hasbro has been strongly trending away from pre-painted plastic minis over the past year or so (Heroscape, DDM, etc.) so this is not entirely a surprise.

Heroscape's new direction

The Heroscape game seems headed in a new direction now, for good or ill.

The "classic" game was notable for its eclectic mix of combatants. The "battle of all time" would draw on warriors from just about any heroic genre -- Westerns, sword-and-sorcery, World War II, Rome, gothic, spies, etc. One of the first things I heard about the game was that it had, among the combatants, an orc riding a dinosaur! You have to be a hard hearted realist not to think that's really cool at some level.

This "world," involving five (later six) warring Kyrie lords was enough to take the game through 10 "waves" of 4-pack expansions, pluse several large pack terrain expansions and two master sets. Aside from a short-lived and noatbly unsuccessful foray into the super hero genere, this was Heroscape.

The newest Dungeons & Dragons themed master set, however, definitely alters the trajectory of the game into a much more fantasy-oriented direction. And I'm unsure whether this is a positive move, because to me it seems potentially limiting. There are now two full 4-set "waves" of D&D based squads and heroes so I think we can judge where D&D is taking the game.

The good news is that the D&D stuff is fully compatible in tone and detail with the classic game, unlike the Marvel Superhero stuff. A few new and interesting twists ahve been added to the system ("shadow" terrain, "uncommon" heroes and treasure glyphs).

The main concern is whether the game will become too tied to D&D and too fantasy-oriented. Can D&D maintain player interest over the long haul? Especially considering that there's already a D&D miniatures game out there AND that D&D, itself, in the latest version, become much more of a skirmish-type game. If you're going to go adventuring, wouldn't D&D make more sense than Heroscape?

So far there's no indication the D&D theme has hurt Heroscape, and there's been no official announcement that there won't be any more classic Heroscape, so it may be that this is just a short-lived diversion to take advantage of cross promotion with D&D and saving on production costs by reusing DDM molds. I do hope that this isn't a permanent change in the game.

Breaking in the Underdark

While a long-time Heroscape fan I hadn't had a chance to try out the new Underdark master set until today but my first impression was a good one.

I played a complete Heroscape novice, so I naturally took the weaker side, but even though I went down to eventual defeat it was an interesting fight.

We played the first scenario, which sees the heroic human fighter Tandros Kreel and his elven magic-user companion Ana Karithon racing to rescue the Elf mage Erevan Sunshadow from drowning in a cage guarded by a fearsome feral troll.

This alone was an interesting twist from the usual Heroscape scenario, which often tend to degenerate into mere smashing matches.

Tandros and Ana charged forward and were met halfway by the troll, who concentrated on the weaker Ana first. Here we made an error in play because I didn't realize that Tandros had a special ability that required him to be attacked first if he was adjacent to an enemy. The novice player also missed the special ability.

In any case Tandros bravely abandoned Ana to face the troll alone while he continued on to free Erevan. The troll dispatched Ana and followed.

Tandros was able to spring the cage on the first try, and the blubbering Erevan crawled out of the water and right into the rending arms of the troll. Having no order markers on him because he was just freed Erevan wasn't able to use his Fey power to escape and the second hero joined the first in the dead pile.

So it was just Tandros against the troll. Tandros abandoned the archery he had using up to this point for a close-range broadsword attack that quickly slew the troll, and claiming a rather Pyrrhic victory. It appears to me that the hero party needs to use Tandros to deal with the troll while Ana tries to save Erevan. I'll report how that turns out.

The battle went quickly. It probably took more time to build the set than it took to play. Next time I'll try to get more than one fight off the same map.

Is Dungeons & Dragons the salvation of Heroscape?

The new master set for Heroscape that merges the Dungeons & Dragons universe with Heroscape seems to be revitalizing the Heroscape franchise.

Unlike the Heroscape Marvel master set, which fell flat, the D&D themed set has been flying off the shelves, I'm hearing from retalers and the first expansion also seems to be selling briskly.

It's likely to be a moneymaker for Hasbro, too, because they are repurposing figures that have already appeared in the Dungeons & Dragons Miniatures game. There have been something like 20 sets of D&D minies so far, each with 50+ figures so there are well over a thousand miniatures available for possible Heroscape expansions.

The long-term future of the main Heroscape line is a little more questionable. While there have awlays been some classic fantasy figures in Heroscape, a lot of the figures are also based on sci fi and historical themes which lie outside the scope of D&D, so it would seem like there will still be a need for new figures if Hasbro wants to keep the main line alive.

Heroscape meets D&D

The next base set for Heroscape is going to have a Dungeons & Dragons theme, which is an interesting juxtaposition of two major Hasbro brands. D&D is, of course, the venerable RPG originally marketed by TSR in the 70s and 80s and Hasbro already has a line of Dungeons & Dragons miniatures and, until recently, a D&D skirmish rules set to use them with.

So one might legitimately wonder if there's some redundancy here, but Heroscape, despite its RPG-like back story and aura, is essentially a simple skirmish-level wargame with little pretension for any kind of story continuity or even theme. Sure, there's a meta-narrative of the lord Jandar leading his colleagues against the lord Utgar's attempts to seize control of Valhalla, but it appears to be a very loose alliance and there's plenty of times when minions summoned by Utgar and Janadar will be on the same side fighting against other minions summoned by the same lords for the purposes of a scenario.

D&D is much more about internally consistent narratives, and while there have been D&D campaigns set in a vast variety of settings and "worlds," 30+ years of D&D have slowly built up a core D&D mythos that is recognizably different from Tolkien or other fantasy stories. So creatures from the D&D Mythos have assumed enough of a "reality" to be just as valid a summoning source as Earth, Alpha Prime or Grut.

Over at Heroscapers.com they've started reviewing the new base set, which will be more like the Marvel set than similar to the original set or the Marro-themed set. There will be just 10 figures (4 heroes and 6 bad guys) and a limited number of terrain pieces. To attract veteran players there will be some new terrain types and rules introduced, but the set is also geared toward new players by being completely self-contained.

It's hard to predict where this may take the Heroscape brand. There seem to be no plans for any new waves or follow-on sets in the existing Heroscape universe. The Marvel Heroscape never caught on -- I still see them sitting on store shelves -- so there's reason to wonder if this D&D-theming will work out. Presumably real D&D fans already are pretty invested in their existing miniature lines. Or is the hope that Heroscapers will be lured into trying more D&D products after being exposed to it through Heroscape?

I've though for quite some time that the last decade or so was an unusual state of affairs, where a combination of economic conditions allowed game manufacturers to import large numbers of good-quality miniatures from China at a low cost. We had an explosion of "bling" in games, where it wasn't uncommon to see games with dozens of painted plastic minis or hundreds of unpainted minis.

Heroscape was just one of the manifestations of that trend. The first base set had an amazing amount of stuff for the price. So much stuff that it was hard to get it back in the box. Of course getting stuff back in the box became moot as all the expansions came out. My complete set of Heroscape stuff takes up the better part of two plastic storage bins now.

So I wonder of the kind of product offering Heroscape fans got used to, such as multiples "waves" of expansions with a couple of dozen figures each, is a at hing of the past.

And maybe the new D&D Heroscape is an attempt to merge the Heroscapers into the existing D&D hobby. Time will tell.

Nice obituary for Dave Arneson in The Guardian newspaper

Here's the link.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/apr/24/obituary-david-arneson-dungeons-dragons-creator

Mr. Arneson's passing is noted by the New York Times

There is now a New York Times obituary for Mr. Arneson: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/04/10/us/AP-Obit-Dave-Arneson.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
You know you're in the big time when you get a New York Times news obituary.
From my game blog at http://pawnderings.blogspot.com

Dave Arneson tribute at Flying Buffalo Website

Rick Loomis, who's a gentleman gamer himself, pays tribute to the late Dave Arneson.

http://www.flyingbuffalo.com/arneson.htm

Dave Arneson has passed

Several sites are independently reporting Mr. Arneson has indeed passed away. Over at Dork Tower John says he has talked to the family.

Link here: http://muskrat-john.livejournal.com/

Memorial service is planned for April 20th.

While always the more low-key of the co-creators of D&D, Dave and the late Gary Gygax did do a lot for our hobby.

Dave Arneson is Ill

Dave Arneson, who was instrumental in the growth of Dungeons & Dragons is reportedly in Hospice care at age 61 fighting cancer.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/396507

Reviewing collectible games from a wargamer's perspective: Dungeons and Dragons Miniatures 2d ed.

Dungeons and Dragons Miniatures is a skirmish-level combat game of man-to-man, man-to-monster and monster-to-monster combat. Thematically it's inspired by the Dungeons & Dragons universe and most game mechanic revolve around the rolling of a 20-sided die.

I came to the game system late, just as it was extensively revised from the original system (listed separately on Boardgame Geek's database) into what's known as the Second Edition. Interestingly, not long after making this major revision Wizards of the Coast decided to discontinue the game as a stand-alone miniatures game and make all future miniatures just for the role-playing game. Evidently the newest edition of the RPG plays much like the 2nd Ed. minis and it may have seemed to duplicate the product. The stat cards for the miniatures include data for use in the RPG, so the miniatures can do double duty as RPG tools or boardgame pieces.

The revised game is actually a little less wargame-like than the original rules, which included commanders and morale effects, but there's still considerable scope for tactics.

The game is ruthlessly small scale, with an upper limit on the number of characters on a side of 10. While artificial, it does keep the game system from degenerating by having a single powerful piece being overwhelmed by hordes of small weak pieces.

Each character has a point value used for army-building and victory conditions and an alignment of either good, evil or neutral. In the earlier version of the game the alignments were further broken down between chaotic and lawful modifiers so a creature could be Lawful Evil or Chaotic Good for example. In the new games most creatures are just plain "neutral." A fairly large number are characterized as "evil" while only a select few are "good." Good and evil characters cannot co-exist in the same warband and some game effects and powers can be affected by alignment.

Each character belongs to one of more of the four "factions" which are borderlands, civilization, the wild and the underdark. All the creatures in a given warband must share at least one faction in common, which helps provide some thematic coherence to the warbands.

Each character has a level, which can have some game effects and an armor class and a defense value. Armor class is generally used against most normal attacks while the defense value is often used to defend against special kinds of attacks such as magic or psionics. The defense value can be further modified into sub categories such as reflex or willpower when faced with particular kinds of attacks.

Every kind of attack, whether physical, magical, psionic or poisonous is resolved in the same way, which is a real strength of the game system. The attacking player rolls a 20-sides die and adds the creatures relevant attack value plus any modifiers to the result. If it equals or exceeds the relevant protecting value (armor class or defense value plus any modifiers) then the attack succeeds and inflicts the effects stated on the attackers card. These effects generally include a number of hit points but often include other effects as well. The number of hit points a creature has is listed on the data card.

Also listed on the card is a speed value, which may have an "F" denoting a flying creature. The main body of the card contains an illustration of the character, its attack actions, any keyword abilities (such as alignment, race and other common status) and any special powers.

Everything is listed on the card and a player will rarely have more than 10 creatures and their associated cards to track, so the workload isn't too bad. I've found that the game is easily teachable to fairly young players.

The cards from the older versions of the game are not compatible with the news system but WOTC is publishing online revised cards for all the previously produced miniatures that can be downloaded and printed out at home, so no creatures have been made obsolete.

For the historically oriented wargamer there's little of interest in D&D miniatures. The game play is heavily influenced by the magic-heavy D&D gaming universe where mages are as common as white-collar professionals in our world. (In contrast to the Tolkien world of Lord of the Ring: TMG where wizards are powerful and extremely rare).

That said, it is a well-designed, easy-to-play skirmish level wargame that involves real tactical choices and may provide a bridge game between fantasy-oriented RPGers and board wargamers.

As a discontinued collectible game it may be possible to pick up all the common you need off of eBay economically but rares, especially certain desirable ones, will probably command premium prices for a while. I wouldn't expect big discounts because the miniatures are also usable in any fantasy RPG and therefore probably won't end up in bargain bins.

A wargamey approach to D&D Miniatures

Most wargamers, even those with pretty eclectic tastes, will have certain types of games that appeal to them more than others. I've always had a weakness for man-to-man level skirmish games, for example. I own more than a dozen right now and have owned or played dozens more since playing Sniper! back in the 1970s.

Every wargame has to strike a balance between realism and playability, but higher-level wargames can mask some of their abstractions more easily than skirmish games. Few people who have never served at a higher-level military headquarters have a strong idea of exactly how an army works. But just about everybody can imagine very easily the potential moves of an individual soldier, so there's a strong incentive for a skirmish level wargame to become very detailed. The player knows that in real life the soldier could peek around a corner, so he wants his soldier to be able to do it.

Yet action at the skirmish level is fast and furious and a game that bogs down in too much detail runs the risk of failing to captures the chaos and quick reaction of a melee.

There's no right answer, and I've found games at both ends of the spectrum that do an acceptable job. Gunslinger, for example, may be one of the most detailed non-computer man-to-man shooter games ever published and is well-regarded and popular, But so is Cowboys, Worthington Games' newer game on the same topic that eschews much of the detail in favor of speed and ease of play. A 30-second gunfight in Gunslinger will often take a couple of hours to play. A similar gunfight in Cowboys will still take more than 30 seconds, but it's unlikely to take more than an hour.

My association with Dungeons and Dragons also goes back to the 70s. I first played with the original three books, although I never became a hard-core RPGer, preferring historical wargames instead. When I did role play, I soon moved over to the more tactically oriented Fantasy Trip which further evolved into GURPS. Interestingly enough, in its later editions D&D has also become more like a tactical skirmish wargame.

The D&D miniatures game is a simplified version of the D&D tactical system and indeed, it appears that there's not an awful lot of difference between them at this point. WOTC has recently (October) announced that it's going to discontinue new releases of the D&D Miniatures game in favor of making miniatures that are just geared toward the roleplaying game.

As a late comer to the D&D miniatures this is mildly disappointing, as I think it's actually a pretty decent light skirmish wargame, but there's a silver lining to the news, nonetheless.

Like most miniatures games these days, D&D Minis are collectible, with all the money sink potential that implies. It also means a business model heavily reliant on sanctioned tournament play that encourages constant purchases to stay competitive. While a successful approach for collectible card games, this has worked out rather less well for miniatures. The only long-running collectible miniatures game that seems to have held its own is HeroClix.

For non-competitive play, however, the end of competitive play means that after-market prices and availability of miniatures will improve and the freezing of the game's further development makes it much more favorable for casual players.

For those casual players, what does D&D miniatures offer.

It's a very straightforward man-to-monster level game. A 200-point game gives each player about a half-dozen to up to 10 figures that can battle on a square-gridded map. The usual battlefield has starting areas for each player and "victory point ares" for each that tend to lie on the opponent's side of the field. Occupying a victory area (presumably looting some treasure) provides victory points, as does eliminating enemy figures. This simple expedient encourages players to close and fight and provides a context for the battlefield maneuvers.

Combat is very simple, and is handled the same way whether it is a melee attack, a ranged attack or a magic blow. The attacking player rolls a 20-sided die (a D&D tradition) adds any modifiers and compares that result to the target's armor class (or its separate "defense" values for some kinds of attacks). If the result equals or exceed that armor value then it's a hit and it does the number of"hit points" (another traditional D&D term) indicated on the attacker's stat card. Once a target accumulates more than half it's Hit Point value in damage it is considered "bloodied" which often provides benefits for subsequent attackers. When damage equals a target's hit point value it's eliminated.

Various special powers apply various elaborations to this combat routine or affect movement or the timing of actions, but that's the essence of the game.

It compares in complexity to Heroscape or Cowboys and is a skirmish game you can definitely play with younger gamers, while the interaction of powers and the metagame of warband construction provides scope for more experienced gamers.

The miniatures are also fully usable with the role-playing game and include stats on the reverse side of the card for the role-playing rules. Having no game-specific data on the bases, the miniatures are also suitable for use with any other set of RPG rules or even other skirmish level games that use similar sized figures. (The D&D minis are billed as "28mm" scale.)