NOTÍCIAS D&D 4ª Edição

[Templario]

esse warforged ficou muito parecido com um que jogo (só que ele é todo negro e usa uma espada larga). Os olhos vermelhos ficaram ninjas

[AKImeru]

Eu ri. Você também é cético hardcore, que nem o Eltor?

Ao menos eu tento usar argumentos ao em vez de postar um video de magias quando estamos iscutindo técnicas com armas

Eu citei vários personagens de jogos diferentes da série, não viu?

Vi sim. E que eu saiba, "Punhos e Pés" não contam como "Armas". Se bem que no ToB tem uma disciplina que contam sim.


E que curioso, é a única disciplina que algo semelhante a FF pode ser encontrado.

[Wykthor]

Excerpts: Skill Challenges
4th Edition Dungeon Master's Guide

From the first discussions about D&D 4th Edition, we knew that we wanted a mechanical subsystem as robust as combat that could handle the other things PCs do in an adventure—namely, social encounters and challenge encounters. We didn’t want a system that reduced all the intricacies of a situation to a single die roll; we also didn’t want a system that failed to add to the fun of an adventure. What we did want, for the situations that called for it, was a system full of tension, drama, and risk… the very essence of any D&D encounter.

The Skill Challenges system leaves plenty of room for roleplaying, while providing a sound mechanical rules element that allows for die rolling and the tension of a random element. It’s a robust system that can be used for any social encounter that includes real consequences for failure, as well as for other skill challenges that don’t involve combat—from finding your way out of a mysterious jungle, to taming a savage beast, to researching an ancient spell, and more.

What follows is the opening section of the Skill Challenges chapter, a few key sidebars, and a skill challenge template right out of the Dungeon Master’s Guide.


Skill Challenges

An audience with the duke, a mysterious set of sigils in a hidden chamber, finding your way through the Forest of Neverlight—all of these present challenges that test both the characters and the people who play them. The difference between a combat challenge and a skill challenge isn’t the presence or absence of physical risk, nor the presence or absence of attack rolls and damage rolls and power use. The difference is in how the encounter treats PC actions.

Skill challenges can account for all the action in a particular encounter, or they can be used as part of a combat encounter to add variety and a sense of urgency to the proceedings.
--Bill Slavicsek

The Basics

To deal with a skill challenge, the player characters make skill checks to accumulate a number of successful skill uses before they rack up too many failures and end the encounter.

Example: The PCs seek a temple in dense jungle. Achieving six successes means they find their way. Accruing three failures before achieving the successes, however, indicates that they get themselves hopelessly lost in the wilderness.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Is This a Challenge?
It’s not a skill challenge every time you call for a skill check. When an obstacle takes only one roll to resolve, it’s not a challenge. One Diplomacy check to haggle with the merchant, one Athletics check to climb out of the pit trap, one Religion check to figure out whose sacred tome contains the parable—none of these constitutes a skill challenge.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Encounters Have Consequences

Skill challenges have consequences, positive and negative, just as combat encounters do. When the characters overcome a skill challenge, they earn the same rewards as when they slay monsters in combat—experience and perhaps treasure. The consequences of total defeat are often obvious: no XP and no treasure.

Success or failure in a skill challenge also influences the course of the adventure—the characters locate the temple and begin infiltrating it, or they get lost and must seek help. In either case, however, the adventure continues. With success, this is no problem, but don’t fall into the trap of making progress dependent on success in a skill challenge. Failure introduces complications rather than ending the adventure. If the characters get lost in the jungle, that leads to further challenges, not the end of the adventure.

Sample Skill Challenges

Use the following skill challenge templates as the basis for skill challenges you design for your adventures. The level and complexity values are suggestions only; adjust as necessary to meet the needs of your adventure.

The Negotiation
The duke sits at the head of his banquet table. Gesturing with a wine glass, he bids you to sit. “I’m told you have news from the borderlands.”

This skill challenge covers attempts to gain a favor or assistance from a local leader or other authority figure. The challenge might take only as long as a normal conversation, or it could stretch on for days as the characters perform tasks to earn the NPC’s favor.

Setup: For the NPC to provide assistance, the PCs need to convince him or her of their trustworthiness and that their cause helps the NPC in some way.

Level: Equal to the level of the party.

Complexity: 3 (requires 8 successes before 4 failures).

Primary Skills: Bluff, Diplomacy, Insight.

* Bluff (moderate DCs): You try to encourage the NPC to aid your quest using false pretenses. Characters can cooperate to aid a lead character using this skill.

* Diplomacy (moderate DCs): You entreat the NPC for aid in your quest. First success with this skill opens up the use of the History skill (the NPC mentions an event from the past that has significance to him).

* Insight (moderate DCs): You empathize with the NPC and use that knowledge to encourage assistance. First success with this skill reveals that any use of the Intimidate skill earns a failure.

* History (easy DC): You make an insightful remark about the significant event from the NPC’s past. This is available only after one character has gained a success using the Diplomacy skill, and it can be used only once in this way during the challenge.

* Intimidate: The NPC refuses to be intimidated by the PCs. Each use of this skill earns a failure.

Success: The NPC agrees to provide reasonable assistance to the characters. This could include treasure.

Failure: The characters are forced to act without the NPC’s assistance. They encounter more trouble, which may be sent by the NPC out of anger or antagonism.

***Be sure to return Wednesday for a look at weapons!***


Fonte: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4ex/20080505a



EDIT I: Imagem do dia. Isso é para ser um worg? Ok, sei que desde a 3.0 a WotC tem mudado algumas aparências de bichos (displacer beast e umber hulk, por exemplo), mas não significa que eu tenha gostado:

Worg

SPOILER: EXIBIR

EDIT II: Keith Baker fala sobre Eberron (compilação de um user da EnWorld)

I'm working on a number of projects at the moment, including a big Eberron article for DDI (a longer piece than anything I've done for Paizo or the old WotC website) and the 4E Eberron core book. For anyone who hasn't heard the news, WotC has announced that they will be putting out three books for Eberron in 2009: a Campaign Guide (aimed primarily at DMs), a Player's Guide (including material relevant to both DMs and PCs), and an adventure. Beyond this, the setting will be getting DDI support; it's possible that there will be further print books, but that's entirely dependent on whether it proves to be economically feasible - so a lot will depend on how those core books do. Likewise, at the moment there's some significant support planned through DDI, but if you want to see that continue, it will certainly help to let the folks at DDI know that you're interested.

Looking to the 4E Campaign Guide and the Player's Guide, I want to say that these are NOT simply 4E translations of the ECS and the PGtE. You're not going to see a lot of duplication of material between the two; because they are coming out around the same time, if there's material that is equally relevant to both PCs and DMs, it's going to go in the Player's Guide. So looking to the current ECS, things like feats, dragonmarks, racial descriptions, the artificer, spells, and so on would all go in the Player's Guide. Nation descriptions will be aimed at what you need to know to create a character from a particular region - as opposed to the Campaign Guide, which will tell you things like which noble may be undead, who wants to go back to war and who wants to stop it, and so on. First, this means that there will be a much clearer delineation of "These are things known to the public, and these aren't". Second, it means that we will have room in the Campaign Guide to present information NOT available in the 3.5 ECS... whether it's just a greater level of depth on old ideas or organizations (what's House Tarkanan up to? How do you actually use the Dreaming Dark?) or presenting a few entirely new ideas to play with. With the benefit of hindsight, there are certainly things I wish we'd done differently in the 3.5 ECS, along with issues where we've had conflicts and contradictions between sourcebooks in the following years. MY goal is to have the 4E core books provide a solid and consistent foundation for the setting, and to ensure that they are interesting and useful both to newcomers to Eberron and to people who have been playing it since the start. Of course, I'm not the only person working on the books, and a lot can happen over the course of a year - so I can't promise specific coverage on any specific topics or go into great detail about anything. However, I'm excited by the potential I see in these books, and I believe that we've got far more to offer than just a mechanical update to 4E.

(snip)

This just means that WotC only plans to put out those 3 Eberron books in 2009, right? Not like they are thinking of putting those out and then abandoning the setting altogether?

Sort of. Bear in mind that I'm not a WotC employee, so everything I say here is based on my impressions as a freelancer, not any sort of inside information.

Up to this point, WotC has essentially supported two settings: Forgotten Realms and Eberron. Every year there's been a certain number of sourcebooks produced for each setting. You could expect in a random year to see three or four printed Eberron products.

The problem is that setting-specific material is a big financial risk for a company. Some people won't even look at a book because it's got "Eberron" on the cover. If that book is really aimed solely at DMs... which at the end of the day, a book like Dragons of Eberron is... that narrow audience is cut even further. And the sad fact of the matter is that WotC has a bottom line; Hasbro is interested in making money, not just supporting Eberron fans.

So, the policy that has been stated is that WotC is going to devote a year to each setting. Forgotten Realms in 2008, Eberron in 2009... and in 2010, something else. Dragonlance? Ravenloft? Planescape? Dark Sun? They've got lots of options to choose from. The Setting of the Year will get a campaign guide, player's guide, and large adventure, as described.

What has been specifically stated is that this does not rule out the production of additional material for a pprior setting "if it makes sense." So if there is clearly a strong demand and ready market for a particular Eberron book, it may be produced. But you aren't going to see them producing lots and lots of Eberron books just because, well, that's what they've been doing for the last few years.

Obviously I'm disappointed about this. There are many subjects in Eberron that we haven't had a chance to explore yet. With that said, it's WotC's property and sadly, I can understand the financial issues at stake. What remains to be seen is the extent of the DDI support (as I've said, the article I'm working on now is quite large... and dealing with one of those subjects I've wanted to explore in more depth). And there's always the possibility that if WotC decides it's not going to produce additional sourcebooks that they may license the property to a smaller company.

In any case, it's really too early to put too much weight on this, in my opinion. It's a plan. It's based on projected sales. So a lot will depend on how well the 4E Eberron books do, and if there IS a clear demand for more print books. We don't know what 2010 will bring yet - but it is two years away, and I'm not going to worry too much about it today. I'm excited about 2009, and as I've said before, I think 4E is a great system for Eberron... so perhaps the setting WILL do well enough in 2009 to justify future sourcebooks.

As far as I know, this policy is aimed at RPG material and doesn't affect the novel line; as long as the books continue to sell, you should see Eberron novels for years to come (I'm still planning on resolving the issues left hanging at the end of The Gates of Night!). But again, I'm not a WotC employee, so take it all with a few grains of salt.

(snip)

Here's a question for you--how much of the material from the 3.5 books will be a necessary resource?

None of the 3.5 books will be a NECESSARY resource. The core 4E books will completely replace the 3.5 ECS, and provide enough information that you can use the setting with nothing else.

With that said, this won't stop the 3.5 books from being a USEFUL resource. There won't be a 4E Sarlona sourcebook, so if you want to run a 4E campaign in Sarlona, Secrets of Sarlona is still the go-to book. The 4E ECS will mention Stormreach, but it's going to cover it in a few paragraphs, not a sourcebook. I know that WotC has said that DDI will be providing 4E support for City of Stormreach and Dragons of Eberron; I wouldn't be surprised to see support for some of the earlier books as well.

With that said, the 4E core books should provide more information about certain topics. It's not going to have as much information about the kalashtar as Races of Eberron. However, I want you to have MORE information about the kalashtar (and shifters, and changelings, etc) than the 3.5 ECS did... to make sure that you can play these races out of the box without owning RoE. Likewise, I want the 4E core books to give a stronger sense of what national identity means for a PC. This won't REPLACE Five Nations, but it will help the purely 4E player who doesn't have access to the older books.

Will time have passed, and so the geography/politics be updated?

After much discussion, the decision was made not to advance the timeline for Eberron. Geography will remain intact. However, as I said, I'd like to see use explore a few of the broader issues of the setting from the begining this time around. The original 3.5 ECS really didn't give you that much of a sense of the impact of the Last War, for example.

While much of this could be seen as simply drawing in elements of other books - Five Nations, Forge of War - it's also my hope to explore aspects of the setting that have been mentioned but never explored in great detail. And there's going to be a few new surprises. Nothing that contradicts what's gone before - interesting things that could have always been there, and simply gone unnoticed, or new threats that are just arising as of 998 YK. Out of curiosity, how are you all dealing with the changes that will have to happen in the fiction to reflect 4e (Zilargo, particularly)?

Well, you may be jumping to conclusion. There's no plans to make any vast changes to Zilargo. You may be basing this on the fact that gnomes aren't in the 4E PHB - but they're available as a playable race in the 4E MM, and if necessary we'll provide additional information for the Zil. So Zilargo and the Trust will continue to be gnomes, and I won't have to suddenly say "Oh, Alina was actually an elf all along." With that said, I've got some ideas to help make Zilargo a more interesting and compelling place for PCs to visit - but nonething that invalidates what's gone before.

As for dealing with things as a novelist and a game designer, we have the advantage that the novels aren't canon - so they don't have to perfectly match up. I LIKE to have my novels reflect the world, so you can say "If I was to run this as an adventure, I can see how it would work." However, if it turns out that my 3E novel has a wizard cast a spell that doesn't exist in 4E, I'm not going to lose sleep over it. The main question will be what happens when those characters return in the future. We haven't seen the 4E artificer yet. When we see Lei again, do I keep her as she was, or suddenly have her using different abilities? Personally, I'll probably err in favor of keeping her character consistent; it's a novel first, and a game novel second. But that's partially up to the editors!

So changes like magic missle no longer always hitting? I'm not sure how that'll be reflected in the feel of the fiction...

Yes, and the protagonist of my upcoming novel does in fact use Vancian magic and a few spells that don't exist in the current PHB. I'm going to have to figure out how to manage that in the future. But as I by and large feel that the 4E system is a good match for Eberron as a world, I'm sure it can be done.

It sounds like one could reasonably run Eberron in 4E with their 3.5 ECS and the 4.0 EPG.

Indeed. I'm running two Eberron games at the moment with just the 3.5 books and the core 4E books... and there will be immediate support in DDI. There are things (Dragonmarks, artificers) that I'm just not using now - but I'm simply positing that those things still exist and happen not to be found in our PC groups. And I'll add them in as soon as they're ready for testing.

Are you not doing this because there'll be something for you to playtest sooner than 2009, or from what you know is it perhaps not as simple as this?

There's a few factors.

First, I lied earlier. I went ahead and created least dragonmarks right away for people who wanted to use them, and I have a number of characters in my game with least dragonmarks (Medani, Lyrandar, and two Oriens). However, I made it clear that they were playtest material (and have already changed significantly). I haven't created lesser, greater, or Siberys dragonmarks because I wanted to play the game for a significant period of time and be certain I understood the issues involved. Furthermore, for me fully developed dragonmarks also requires the creation of dragonshard focus items, since those are the real source of the dragonmarked house's power and a factor in understanding the power of a dragonmarked character.

So, I've started work on dragonmarks, and I'm happy with the initial progress. However, I don't think that they are absolutely necessary to a campaign. The 4E Eberron game I ran at Penguicon doesn't use any dragonmarks, and it still feels like Eberron to me.

The artificer is the same issue, only more so. It's a complex class, and I want to make absolutely sure I understand all of the aspects of 4E it's connected to - magic, noncombat magic, magic items, item creation - before throwing something out. There's so many possible characters that can be created with the current rules that I simply didn't feel the need to rush into the artificer. I've got a changeling cleric of the Silver Flame in the same party as a dragonborn paladin of the Blood of Vol and a Valenar ranger torn between two ancestors; it's not a question of not having enough Eberron flavor to go around.

Beyond that, I do expect to have access to a playtest version of the artificer early, because I'm working on the Eberron books. But the main thing is that I have no trouble playing Eberron without artificer PCs or PCs with greater dragonmarks. I know these things can be created within the rules; it's just a question of the best, balanced way to do it. They're in the world around the PCs; it's not like Merrix d'Cannith has vanished. It's just that at the moment, no PC can match the power of Merrix's mark.

Fonte: http://gloomforge.livejournal.com/8996.html#cutid1

[Mirallatos]

Cara...a imagem desse Worg ficou legal. Só falta ser um Worg.

[Deicide]

Eu diria que isso é um bicho infernal, por causa da caveira com chifres da imagem...

[Fëanor]

Vai ver resolveram deixar o warg bem diferente para não ficar parecido com um lobo ou um lobo atroz.

[Corvo da Tempestade]

Isso é para ser um worg?

[Agatha]

Eu achei a imagem o máximo e esse Skill Challanges interessante até.

[Corvo da Tempestade]

Não é que imagem seja ruim (pelo contrário) e que não corresponde a idéia de que tenho de um Worg???

[ShinRyuu]

Cara...a imagem desse Worg ficou legal. Só falta ser um Worg.

Bote fé. Isso é mais velocirraptor do que lobo.

[Kinn]

Velociraptor? Este ao menos é bípede
Esse parece mais um cão de tíndalosde tão bizarro que ficou...

[Elven Paladin]

Sobre Skill Challenges

A mecânica das Skill Challenges é legal, mas utiliza dados em excesso. E, de certa maneira, me lembra um pouco da resolução de problemas em Storyteller/Storytelling. Eu ainda tenho mais simpatia pela mecânica que deu o nome a essa ( do Iron Heroes ), mas longe da utilizada na 4E ser aparentemente problemática.

Sobre Eberron

Só 3 livros prováveis na 4E? Decepcionante, certamente, ainda mais na visão de um fã de tal cenário. Mas, o que mais me assustou foi... dragonborn paladin of the Blood of Vol . Mas que maldição, a Wizards quer enfiar uma raça completamente incompatível com os Dragões e criaturas dracônica em Eberron? Já não basta o que eles fizeram com o novo cenário da Wizards que sairá em 2008?

[Deicide]

A mecânica das Skill Challenges é legal, mas utiliza dados em excesso. E, de certa maneira, me lembra um pouco da resolução de problemas em Storyteller/Storytelling. Eu ainda tenho mais simpatia pela mecânica que deu o nome a essa ( do Iron Heroes ), mas longe da utilizada na 4E ser aparentemente problemática.

Sorcerer, o motivo deles terem feito as Skill Challenges é criar situações em que o jogo não é decidido simplesmente por um único teste.

Por coincidência, estamos discutindo isso (jogos sem combate) num tópico do fórum de RPG Geral.

Aqui minhas palavras no tópico:

Acho que o combate é divertido em RPG porque não é o tipo de ação que você rola uma vez os dados e o resultado te diz se você é vitorioso ou não. Logo, há a tenção turno a turno, em que você tenta vencer o desafio. Em adição, o desafio é que tem alguém te resistindo e que pode derrotá-lo antes que o desafio seja vencido, logo também não é só uma série de jogadas sucessivas para acumular sucessos.

No caso, a melhor solução é aplicar essas características a outras situações, criando assim tensão e resistência.

Skill Challenge 4.0 é mais ou menos isso: você tem um desafio que não é resolvido num único teste, e que cria tensão porque você têm de suceder várias vezes ("dar vários golpes") antes de ser derrotado.

[Wykthor]

Kruthik (meh)

SPOILER: EXIBIR

Essa imagem dos githyanki é mais antiga, mas *acho* que não chegou a ser exibida aqui (só a dos githzerai)

SPOILER: EXIBIR

[Templario]

Kruthik

ZERGS!