The Book of the Dragon

  Just got in the new Dragon book for Fantasy Hero (which, I will be running over the next two weeks). First reaction- HEY! It’s got a very good cover! Yes, for a change, a book from Hero Games is …..ATTRACTIVE! Wha Hoppened??!! Anyway, inside the book is a pot load of dragon types statted out for the Hero System along with other giant monster types (including a living castle, the God of Worms, the Snow Spire Golem and more). A 144 pages of some very good write ups for Fantasy Hero. I am very happy with this buy (with the small exception of no Index). I am, at the same time, very unhappy that my days of buying Hero books is about to come to an end. 

  This is just the type of book that Hero needs to be publishing, not yet another edition of Fantasy Hero or Star Hero. I’ll be keeping my eyes open for new material from Hero. Once it appears, they’ll be earning my hard earned dollars again.

D&D Day

 Yes, my D&D game is today. Not sure if I will make it or not as I am doing other things earlier in the day. I just haven’t really gotten “into” this game. Most of the RPing is done via post (hard for me to keep up with) and so when we meet, we do mostly combat (which, I feel, my character is ineffective at….yawn), so I’m not feeling I am missing much.

 Now, I like gaming with the guys there, so maybe it’s just my character. It really takes a while for me to “get” a character and I don’t think that’s happened yet with this one. Well, we’ll see.

4th Edition Hit Points

• It’s implied that death is now less common, but when it happens it’s more than just the speedbump it is in 3E.
• Negative hit points now go down as far as one-half the character’s normal hit points (instead of the flat -10 currently).
• Bleeding remains, but there’s some kind of die roll associated with it; this means that you can’t predict exactly how many rounds it’ll take to die. It’s a bit faster than 1 hit point per round.
• When you receive healing, the healed hit points count up from zero, not from the negative total you’ve reached (no “negative hit point tax”).
• “Staggered” is gone – zero hit points means unconsciousness and dying, just like any other negative hit point level.
• Monsters don’t generally use these rules, and die at 0HP.

Goodman Games

Goodman Games has released two new Dungeon Crawl Classics, DCC #52: Chronicle Of The Fiend and DCC #30: Vault Of The Dragon Kings, Tournament Edition. I’ve played a few of the various modules they’ve produced and found them fun. Looks like these are the last ones they are making for the 3.5 rules, though.

D&D 4th Edition Information