It may be typical of the pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd to disparage a fellow countryman's memory of war from the comfort of mom's basement, but most Americans have the humility and gratitude to respect and learn from the memories of men who suffered on behalf of others.

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Nor is this the first time that McCain's campaign has tried to make D&D the equivalent of being called a "pinko."

In an earlier post Goldfarb described the editors of the NYTimes as having "all the intelligence and reason of the average Daily Kos diarist sitting at home in his mother's basement and ranting into the ether between games of dungeons and dragons."

After that first ad hominem attack scads of Wingnuts stood up and proclaimed that they too were out and proud about playing D&D.  Mr. 'Farb responded to one of them (Ace of Spades) with the following:

If my comments caused any harm or hurt to the hard working Americans who play Dungeons & Dragons, I apologize. This campaign is committed to increasing the strength, constitution, dexterity, intelligence, wisdom, and charisma scores of every American.
--Michael Goldfarb

Not surprisingly Mr. Spades is now doubting the sincerity of that apology.

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I think there is more outing to do here. I think that Mr. Goldfarb is covering for the fact that he, too, is or was a D&D player. This fits into the classic behavior pattern of closeted homosexuals joining with gay bashers in an attempt to deny their own behavior. It is time for some enterprising journalist to get their hands on a copy of Mr. Goldfarb's high school yearbook and start making some calls! C'mon, doesn't this look like the face of someone who cried when his 10th level magic user died after failing to check for traps? I find it difficult to believe that this man has NOT spent many Saturday nights playing with his 20-sided dice.

Gotta say Mike, Dungeons & Dragons is not going to be the next "limousine liberal" or "brie-eating" in the political lexicon. This is especially poor timing given that the pale and the (usually) dateless like myself are still mourning the death of Gary Gygax.

Mr. Mencken's quote was never more apropos: "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." I wonder how many attack die that hobgoblin gets?

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[caption id="attachment_243" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Yodan fighting a demon, lunging at her awkwardly.(NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer)."][/caption]

It outshines the original campaign even in certain aspects. Such as - the game-play is much more difficult. You are a spirit-eater in this adventure, meaning you have to watch your spirit energy and replenish it by 'devouring spirits'. If you don't you get weak and die, suffer penalties, lose experience points, and if you do  you risk losing your grip on your 'self'. This alone makes the game much more challenging and makes it seem a little bit more real. The original campaign was criticized for the auto-resurrect function, but this spirit-eater aspect more than makes up for that. But then again I always thought it was such a hassle when someone dies to gather all their equipment up, and drag them to the closest temple to resurrect them. Especially if you need that character to finish your current quest, so I never minded the auto-resurrect aspect of NWN2.

The Skein dungeon is one of the most horrible and scary pc roleplaying experiences I have had yet to date, I couldn't wait to get out of there, and then the encounter in dream-scapes with the slumbering coven - brilliant. Another aspect of MOTB that makes it great is the very open-ended game-play. You can go on any number of paths through the game based on a lot of different decisions. It is impossible to see or do it all in one play-through. (But after I finished it I read through all the other players' experiences in the game at the NWN2 forums.)

I actually did take my original NWN2 campaign character all the way through to the end of MOTB. Great fun, great storyline, great action. Much more challenging battles than in the original campaign, many required using all your abilities, different spells loaded, different potions, different buffs, a few different times with different strategies to win. My only criticism is that the storyline from the original campaign gets lost and totally forgotten about. It would of been much cooler to have more integrated plot lines between the two.  If somehow your decisions and the way things ended in the OC, (original campaign) could be optionally loaded into the start of MOTB, that would of been killer. The companions of your character from the OC definitely deserved a role in the expansion. Overall Mask of the Betrayer is fantastic, it's like the OC crossed with that great game Torment: Planescape. MOTB = 9 out 10 points.

via John McCain's blog, via Boing Boing

Much like everything else, the DMG actually tackles the issue of giving rewards, even going so far as to provide Treasure Parcels per encounter that the GM just has to tick off on a list as he doles them out.  But beyond that, let's take a look at the types of rewards there are for an encounter and how they're best utilized.

First of all, there are two major types of Rewards:

• Metagame Rewards - These are rewards that don't directly involve the "reality" upon which the game world operates, as these only directly affect the players and not the characters.  The fun of kicking monsters around, saving the day and being a hero, the jokes and the one-liners are all part of this.  This is the reward of a good game.  For a GM, these rewards include the satisfaction of a game well run where the players had fun and so did you.
• In-Game Rewards - These are the rewards that affect that in-game reality.  Gold, Experience Points and Gear fall under this category.  Players will expect In-Game rewards as a matter of course in D&D, where seeing your character improving, and getting your very first +1 sword are all part and parcel of the D&D experience.

For our checklist today, we'll be focusing on In-Game Rewards, and some helpful guidelines in their use.

• Regulate your rewards - In the same way that too much of a good thing can end up spoiling people, it's also possible to spoil your players.  The DMG has a good set of guidelines as to what treasure to dole out to players at a given level.  If you'd like to save yourself the trouble of doing your own balancing, use the tables.  They're quick, handy and appropriate for the game.  Too much gold and magic items can easily derail your planning as the levels will no longer accurately portray your player character's actual capabilities.
• Don't be stingy - Again, this is a no brainer, but unless your campaign is one where eking out an existence and fighting monsters for the promise of food is a norm, try to keep the heroic feel of getting a reward.  Rewards are there to give the players a feeling of progress, not as a means of being able to afford their next meal.
• Its never JUST a +1 sword - Customize your rewards.  Try to avoid using the numbers when it comes to describing the item, and work on coming up with a catchy name... or better yet, ask the player to name the object they've just won.  If the warrior picked up a +1 Shield, describe it in florid detail, hint at a possible historical relevance (and possible plot hooks associated with it) and ask the player to give it a name as soon as he picks it up.  Aside from lightening the GM load on item name generation, having the player name an item means that the item is truly the character's property.  It ceases to be just another piece of armor, and becomes a signature item that the character is known for.
• Consider the value of non-tangibles - Non-tangible rewards such as Titles, Recognition and even the interest of a potential Partner are actually very useful for both the characters and the GM.  Titles and Recognition are both a boon and a source of plot hooks.  Players feel like a million bucks the moment their fighter gets being called "Sir" and npcs start bowing and scraping to them, but it also opens a warehouse full of plot hooks that might involve them being thrown into the political arena, or having to defend their good name from slanderers and rivals.
• Consider the value of other tangibles - Not everything comes in gold.  Land, a keep and servants all count to being part of a characters reward, but also expand their responsibility towards others.  For GMs, it only means that the character suddenly has more to lose, and most of it is no longer on their person.  The Character is therefore made to care for other people, as a slight to his people, is now a slight to himself.  If you refer to the Relevance Article before this one, other tangibles segue very nicely into an Indirect Threat that will force the characters into action.
• The GM giveth, but the GM don't taketh away - At least, not without good reason, and not permanently.  Players love their rewards.  Most even define their characters with the achievements they've made and the signature gear that they've become known for carrying around.  As such, don't resort to tricks that destory or devalue their gear.  Temporarily making the item or reward unavailable is fair game, but it's one best done sparingly, and only if it serves as a plot hook for the characters to get it back and take punitive action for the theft.

By paying attention to the details when it comes to rewards, an encounter gains an extra level of depth.  Not only will an encounter now have a purpose, it has an extra motivator attached to it that will keep the players coming back for your encounters, no matter how tricky they can get, or how hard they have to work for it.

Though my GM disagrees with me I think this edition has a very diferent feel from the previous. I've been playing D&D since second edition of AD&D, and when the third came out it felt very good. It had lost some things I liked about 2nd but the mechanics, while retaining the same basis, where vastly improved. Some people disagree with this but I truly hated the THAC0 and saves from 2nd. The important difference between the upgrades is that 4th really feels like a different game, with it's totally different mechanics and philosophies, while 3rd felt like a little different 2nd.

Of course this can be good or bad. The game did have some questionable mechanics, like the vancian magic, but these could be improved without changing the game so radically, instead WotC decided to break all bonds (well at least allot of them, we still have alignments) to create a game that with a new philosofy.

First thing that I noticed was that the books are boring to read. I still remember the first time I went through the books of 2nd and 3rd, and they where very enjoyable. While reading them ideas where always flowing, I felt inspired, always coming up with ideas for characters or thinking how cool this monster is. This didn't happen in 4th at all, and in my view is because the books are now largely only blocks stats and rules, with very little fluff. 3rd already had much less than 2nd, but it managed to keep it at a decent level to entice my imagination, 4th unfortunately has almost none, specially the monstrous manual. 2nd ed MM was maybe too much fluff (it was pretty much all in it :P) but 4th is the opposite and has almost none, with a couple of exceptions. The 3rd ed MM and it's middle term, is probably the best, though the 2nd ed MM is the one I enjoyed the most.

Characters are now very different from before. In previous editions the difference between a PC(player character) and and NPC (non player character) was basically that one was controled by a player the other by the GM, other than that they follow the same rules. There where some npc classes but they where similar to PC classes and where used simply to model the "weaker" npc's. In 4th that idea is scrapped, the PC's are special characters from the start and treated differently from NPC's.

The character classes themselves went through a deep transformation. Wanting to make the game more balanced and fun for everyone WotC started by creating roles for the classes, the defender, striker, leader and controler, each one with it's strengths and weakneses and each one complementing the others with the idea of a balanced party of 5 being comprised of one of each role plus one free choice. Besides this, the classes no longer have the allmost infinite number of choices that previous editions gave at creation and leveling in order to maintain the balance and to avoid weak characters, like it could so easily hapen in previous editions.

Feats remain more or less like they where but skills have changed as well. You no longer have skill points per level which you must attribute to a certain number of skills. Instead at creation you can choose from pool of skills, which ones you have trained and those will receive a one time bonus of +5 for the rest of your adventurous life. Though I like some principles of this system I miss the added flexibility of the previous system and how it could be better used to give more depth to your PC's, though I agree it's far from perfect and needed changes.

The rules for combat also received many changes, streamlining and making many things easy, maybe even too easy. I like allot how each character now has 4 defenses that grow with the level instead of only the AC and 3 saves from before, but would it be that hard to include a rule that would give a decent penalty to sleeping/unconscious characters ? As it is a naked unconscious level 20 character is harder to hit than a the same level 1 character fitted with full plate and awake. Sure one is epic and the other isn't but there are limits to the level of "epicness". Unfortunately this and other examples fall in a category of rules that where deemed non important and so, for the sake of simplicity, scraped.

Another big change is how healing works. No longer will we have heal bots like the previous editions clerics. The new clerics have vastly inferior healing abilities, plus these are greatly dependent on the target's own ability to be healed. Healing surges is a new attribute each character has, and depending on the class and constitution scores it will have a certain number of them to use per day, plus they also have another sister stat, the surge value, that says for how much a surge can heal. These surges can't be used directly though. Once per encounter each character has an ability called second wind, which on use will heal the user for the surge value plus increse his defenses by 2 until the end of the turn, besides this, there are other abilities that allow the characters to either heal themselves or to allow others to heal themselves.

Personaly, though I like the idea, I don't realy like the execution. I never liked the idea that injuries are taken so lightly in D&D, which is a problem for me since allways, but before the heals at least where magical, now everyone can heal themselves of allmost anything just because they say so. Sure it helps eleminating the 5 min day work that happens allot in previous editions, but I don't see it as a good solution to just give everyone the ability to heal, but further discussion on this topic would fall out of scope of the current article.

The last big change is the abilities given to the classes. These are divided in combat at will, encounter and daily plus utility that can also be daily, encounter or at will. At certain levels you can either add a new ability or switch an old one by a new higher level one. Like the name implys the daily abilities can be used once per day, the encounter ones, once per encounter and the at will ones can be used whenever you wish. And yes wizards works like this as well, so not only is the vancian system gone but conceptualy they work just like every other class, the uniqueness is no longuer on the class itself and it's mechanics but in the abilities it has associated.

These abilities add another dimension to combat, since every character now has to manage this resource and learn to use it when it's most effective and it does add some fun to the combat but it's far from perfect. For one, many abilities are copies and others are simple upgrades of earlier ones (like dealing one more dice of damage or so), so the variety is not as much as some people where expecting (though I think it's high enough for now, later with more books the choices will naturaly increase), but my biggest issue with the system is in the effects themselves.

Many abilities have the effect of forcing movement or turning opponents upside down, and of course, so these are actualy usefull allmost no monster has any sort of resistance to these. While it's easy to picture an humanoid being pushed back by a menacing twist of the wrist the rogue did the same can't be said of the same effect on, say a huge rock elemental or on an uninteligent creature like a zombie or construct. You can also flip an ooze upside down, but since when do they even have a defined shape ? These are not the worse though, the medal must go for a warlord ability that allows you to move allot of opponents inside a 20 side square pretty much where you want them, and for a warrior ability that forcibly pulls three opponents in a cone close to you and follows with a whirlwind like attack, just because you faigned oppenings, but how can that convince any sort of ranged characters to go into meelee range ?

In the end, 4th edition does some things right and the combat is certainly fun and more involving than before, but it also does some things wrong, so I can't realy say that it's any better than 3rd edition. It feels and plays like a diferent game, and it will certainly please many people, but doesn't convince me and since most of my gaming group likes it even less than I do, I will probably stick with D&D 3.5 for years to come.

I'll start off by defining Relevance as it matters to this article as a motive that directly spurs characters to react because it has something important to do with their situation.  In essence, each encounter in the campaign should be something the characters (and the players) should care about because it directly affects them.

Combat Encounters are usually fairly Relevant primarily because the safety of the Characters, or even the NPCs are at stake.  However, it is also possible for it to be irrelevant when it's another combat that seems to be just thrown at the players to kill time.  Because of this, the GM still has to take a moment and consider why the combat is taking place to begin with.

Non-Combat Encounters usually need more setup to become sufficiently Relevant.  It's easy enough for a GM to slap together a Skill Challenge, but it's harder to make the characters care about it.

So what makes for a relevant encounter?

• Does it threaten the characters in any way? - This is the first and foremost source of priority.  The threat in this situation is not only about personal safety, but also the stability of their situation.  A Skill Challenge to convince a Regent to allow them to take pre-emptive action against an encroaching monstrous army, for example, is a good situation where the threat is not immediate, but hangs close enough to spur characters into taking action.
• Is it personal? - A threat is good, but not as good as a personal threat.  Characters who have something to lose fight harder, because they know that it's no longer just about them.  A mercenary who was hired to fight for a country could abandon the field knowing that if he survived his escape, he could eke out a living elsewhere.  A soldier with an oath of fealty however will fight three times as hard, and will perhaps even consider dying for his country an honor.
• Is the threat apparent? - D&D is a game where characters take action against a known threat.  All the cliche of the evil overlord divulging his plan (or at least parts of it) are there for a reason.  There's nothing heroic about dying ignobly and falling over blue faced into a bowl of poisoned soup.  GMs have to practice restraint when introducing the threat.  If poison is used, use it on an NPC that matters, and make it one that has a cure.  Doing so immediately starts 2 things:  1) Find and obtain the cure and 2) Investigate who is responsible and take punitive action, if possible.  Suddenly something that would have left an angry surly player is now a plot hook that all the group can participate in.  Spur the players into action, rather than frightening them into turtling up and going on a full defensive.
• What do the characters gain? - We've spoken enough about threats, and it's time to focus on the other side of the coin.  What do the players achieve by nullifying the source of the threat?  Do they gain glory, prestige, wealth, love or safety?  Every threat is an opportunity for the characters to build upon their legends, appearing larger than life with each victory.

By reviewing each encounter and making sure that every one of them is significant in some way, instead of being "Kobold ambush for no reason at all #5", you can draw the players to become more closely involved in the game.

In essence, each encounter built has to have one purpose in mind:  To give the player characters an opportunity to be a hero.

Os jogadores veteranos conhecem muito bem a gencon ou pelo menos já ouviram falar, leram algo em revistas especializadas ou na internet. Entretanto, os mais novos talvez não tenham esta informação e é por isso que venho falar um pouco deste grandioso evento.

A gencon é nada mais nada menos que o maior e mais importante evento de RPG, foi nele que em 2007 a Wizard of Coast anunciou o D&D 4ed e é nele que diversas outras empresas lançam seus produtos.

O evento ocorreu durante os dias 14 a 17 de agosto contando com mais de 20 mil participantes. Assim como na EIRPG, que é o mais importante evento do Brasil, eles têm palestras e seminários onde professores, bibliotecários e outros profissionais de educação são apresentados a como utilizar os jogos de RPG no currículo da base de ensino.

Este ano Gary Gygax, um dos pais do D&D, teve um minuto em sua memória, já que ele faleceu em março deste ano. Nós ficamos com seu legado...

Para saber mais sobre o que ocorreu na Gencon deste ano visite: http://www.rpgarautos.com.br/index.php/noticias/gencon/79-gencon-2008-inicio-da-cobertura

With his tour about the room complete with nothing out of the ordinary found, the dwarf reluctantly joined the others in looking over the odd magical contraption. “So what’s it for? Floating well discs are beyond my experience.”

The dwarf looked to Miklos expectantly. The mage always seemed to have thoughts and opinions on everything else odd that they’d encountered so far.

Miklos gazed with fascination as Nicolai tapped the surface of the disk. “Aha! My admiration for Elyas grows! Ingenious, but not very defensive. I suppose it might frighten a few off though. A mage-locked door to a stairwell would be just as good eh? A mode of transport is what we have here. Wonderful! I have read about temporary varieties ahhh… Discus Telekinesis, I think. I believe they are reformed air elementals. Practically harmless. I wonder if it can be removed? That would be something.” he chortled excitedly.

Never a too incautious person, Nicolai called Maruc over. “Hold my arm. I want to see if it will bear my weight.” Gripping his friend’s arm, he gingerly placed the foot on the disk and transfered his weight on the disk, which held firm under his boot.

“There’s got to be another way on,” grumbled the priest. “This is like placing yourself into the hands of a sorcerer willingly and we all know what Dentiata was like!”

“Lost your Faith Maruc?” said Miklos marching passed Nicolai onto the blue glowing disk and picking up his coin. He tossed it to the startled rogue.

Nicolai deftly caught the coin then realized he had let go of the priest. Thankfully he was not falling to his death. He turned to the mage. “How much weight do you think it can take?”

“Good point Nicolai.” replied Miklos. “We must not underestimate Elyas. I will take each of you down one at a time and since you are here… ahh…Nieuwode?” he suggested.

With smooth ease, the disc lowered itself slowly down the well.

“You are a rude man Miklos, I have not lost my faith but your wits seem to have departed from you!” Maruc called after the descending pair. “Have you considered what you will meet at the bottom?”

“I ain’t going on no magical flying disc” Feldard was adamant of that as he watched Miklos and Nicolai descend, peering over the edge of the well trying to judge the distance.

“Aha! I see the tunnels do not breed fools!” grinned Maruc. “Overlooking manically attacking an impregnable Bone Guardian…”

“Perhaps there is a secret tunnel we have overlooked? You are wise in these structures what do you see Feldard?” added the priest hopefully.

Having already checked, the dwarf sourly shook his head. “No tunnels to be found. How deep would you reckon this shaft is? With enough rope I could likely climb my way down.” Sure, Feldard was being optimistic, but the dwarf warrior would rather take his chances with his own dwarven strength than rely on some questionable elven magic.

* * * * *

After descending a few hundred feet, the blue disc came to a rest atop an ornate carved pedestal in the center of a 30-foot diameter room, identical in design to the room above, except for a different selection of similarly themed statuary. As the room above, a set of bronze double doors on the eastern wall appeared to be the only exit.

Skill Challenges are explained in detail in the DMG, but are essentially an extended contest wherein the players attempt to utilize their skills against a series of checks.  The skills used are suggested by the players, but the GM is encouraged to come up with a list of eligible skills and appropriate DCs for any given task.  That being said, it's a great system to bring D&D out of it's purely combat focus and to emphasize creativity and clever skill use.  In addition, it's pretty handy in things like social conflict, or intellectual conflict.

• Failure isn't Losing - When handling Skill challenges, it's always good to remember that failing a skill challenge doesn't always mean that all hope is lost.  A failed skill challenge is an opportunity for GMs to implement complications, and to raise the stakes.  Consider putting yourselves in the shoes of your players in this case.  Rather than making them feel worse about losing the challenge, ramp up the difficulty a notch and watch your players buckle down to give their best to handle the consequences.
• Be open to suggestions - Players are a wily bunch and I've often been surprised with their resourcefulness in the field.  Like I mentioned in the earlier playtest report, the team of players I ran for last saturday managed to find a way to deal with two Fire Beetles that were giving them trouble by Comboing some spells with Skill Checks.  While not completely a skill challenge in an of itself, I certainly didn't plan for a Flaming Sphere with Ghost Sound on it to seduce Fire Beetles in the game.
• Be Dynamic - Skill Challenges are mechanically a cool system, but what it doesn't come with is instant excitement.  Build up your skill challenge and heap on the descriptions.  Much like combat, that can quickly lose the excitement of the moment as soon as the GM and a single player end up haggling on the finer details of a power description, Skill Challenges must keep moving.  Pacing is once again crucial as you don't want them to breeze through a skill challenge without any sense of Tension.  When handling a chase scene for example, give descriptions between rolls, making it so that they never consider the fact that all they're doing is rolling dice in sequence.
• Be Diverse - 4e might have a smaller skill list than 3e, but it's still important to use all of them.  The more commonly rewarded skills include Theivery, Bluff and Diplomacy, but that doesn't mean you should stop there.  Unless the skill really has nothing to do with the task at hand (like using Nature against a complex Arcane formulae building on sprit binding and true names)  give the players a chance to exercise their skills to the fullest.
• Reward Roleplay but don't penalize rolls - This is an interesting issue that pops up now and then whenever rules encroach into roleplay territory.  Which matters more, a natural 20 roll or an eloquent delivery by a player that leaves the table in stunned silence out of sheer Awesomeness™?  Consider merging the two.  A good speech should provide a positive bonus to the roll, perhaps even lowering the difficulty of the task.  Or, a not so tactful statement might have been offset with a sufficiently high roll.  Another possible alternative would be to roll first, and roleplay the result.  It might not necessarily be advantageous to the silver tongued player, but it's certainly more fair to those without the same level of skill as a player.

Skill challenges are a great "sub-game" when used properly, and will reward players who are quick on their feet, even if they're not tactically minded.  With a little forward planning, the GM will find that skill challenges are a great alternative to yet another combat.

I won't go into specifics, but it was a sequence of encounters:

• a short combat in a small, ransacked armory, followed by
• an attempt to disable a large trap then
• a second short combat, where the earlier trap was re-activated to even the odds, firing at friend and foe alike in it's line of sight.

The group consisted of a Tiefling Warlord (Leader), a Human Ranger (Striker), and an Eladrin Wizard (Controller), accompanied by an NPC Human Fighter (Defender).  The quest was straightforward, with the first fight happening with the team in a small room and pinned there by 2 fire beetles, and a bunch of kobold minions and a slinger for backup.

The characters took an early beating from the fire beetles, the ranger getting hit with a crit, taking 18 damage in one go.  Still, they managed to find a way out of the room with some creative use of skills.  The Wizard called on her Flaming Sphere Daily Power and in the next round, with a successful Nature check backed up with the Ranger, was able to emulate the mating call of a female fire beetle.  The fire beetles were confused by the sudden appearance of a female, leaving them distracted and confused even as the Wizard began to maneuver the sphere around to burn the kobolds, the fire beetles following the sphere slavishly, in mating posture, hoping to draw its attention.

The fight led to the second encounter as a kobold fled into a temple room where there's a large statue of Tiamat that serves as a trap, with each of the heads breathing an attack into anyone that moves into it's line of sight.  The party pursued the kobold, who triggered it and had to manage their way close to disable the trap.  Again, careful movement and the use of skills won the day as they disabled the trap.

The last encounter was a result of the Warlord's overly successful intimidation attempt on some minions earlier on in the first encounter.  A human wizard, a couple of fire beetles and two kobold dragonshields joined the fight coming from the other side of the room.  The party decided to go on the defensive, re-activating the trap and holding their own in hopes of whittling down the fresh encounter.  More clever skill use, positioning and the judicious use of Action Points saved the day.

Lessons Learned from this session:

• Creative Skill use saves lives - The fire beetles were a major pain to the party, but with Nature skill checks, and some creative stacking of spell effects, they were able to make a distraction that totally forced the enemy encounter to break.
• Dynamic environments take more work, but are a huge load of fun - the fire in the small room, and having a potentially dangerous trap (1d10 random element damage that fires once per turn at the closest visible target) triggering at the start of each round led to the fight being a lot more dynamic than I originally expected.  There were no dull moments and the players had a lot of fun.

Anyway, the biggest project/headache I've been attending to over the past two weeks is our annual Ramayana festival. My four classes put a lot of work and rehearsals into their presentations, which were all quite satisfying. (Pictures on my Multiply)

On the other hand, this may be the last year Ramayana is going to be performed as we know it. Many issues have been raised regarding its feasibility, and many of these concerns are valid. We're still in the wait-and-see stage, but to be honest, things aren't looking very pleasant.

I'm still thinking of proposals as possible replacements, but everything is still up in the air. Depending on how much we cooperate with each other, we might still get to see another show in PSHS.

Pathfinder

So D&D 3.5 is on its way out, and Wizards of the Coast has been throwing all of its weight behind the 4th Edition project. To be honest, I like 4th Edition, but 3.5 also has its shining moments, and since I've spent a lot of money on 3.5 books, it would be awesome if I could continue using them.

That's where third-party companies come into the picture. Paizo has just released the beta version of its new 3.5-based RPG system, Pathfinder. I'm not so familiar with the setting, but their Player's Handbook is under the Open Gaming License that 3.5 used, and as such is currently available online for download.

The system is pretty much 3.5, but with some minor tweaks and a touch of D&D 4e (whether 4e haters admit it or not).

After going through the book, I saw that they made some rather interesting changes to the 3.5e core:

-the Barbarian uses "rage points" to manage its rage ability instead of just having uses per day. The rage points can also be spent to give the barbarian special abilities while in his rage state.

-the cleric, druid, and wizard now prepare their level 0 spells (orisons for the cleric and druid and cantrips for the wizard) and can then use those spells at will for the rest of the day. This gives them a rather similar feel to the at-will powers that all classes use in 4e. However, did they really have to do this? These three classes are widely seen as the most powerful classes in the game in the core rules alone. Making them more powerful is just insane.

-the Fighter is now far more versatile. He still gains the massive amount of bonus feats he gets in 3.5, but also gains weapon and armor training that further improve his skill with certain weapon groups or armor types. This brings us closer to the image of the fantasy fighter--the quintessential soldier who can kill with anything from a greatsword to a tavern tankard. However, hitting and dealing damage is still boring. I still want to give the fighter more tactical options. (So the Tome of Battle Warblade and the 4E fighter are good fixes in my book.)

-The sorcerer: My favorite update. Many players saw the sorcerer as the wizard's slightly less intelligent step-brother. He gets less spells, can cast more times per day, but is ultimately not much different from the wizard. In Pathfinder, the sorcerer's "magical bloodline" flavor is translated properly into game mechanics---whatever gave you your innate magical ability also manifests in other ways: you gain abilities depending on the source of your bloodline (Aberrant: you were descended from tentacle monsters from the Far Realm; Arcane: your ancestors spent too much time around magic;Celestial: Your ancestors were blessed by the heavens; Draconic: dragon blood in your family roots gives you their arcane power, etc.) as well as bonus spells known. While this gives you a bit more versatility, you don't become anywhere as overpowering as the Wizard. Overall I feel it gives the sorc a more unique and interesting feel than the unfortunate 3.5 humanoid artillery piece.

-Races now have two positive racial ability modifiers each, but also have one negative modifier. For example, the half-orc gains +2 to STR and +2 to WIS, but is penalized -2 to CHA. Humans and Half-elves share the versatility of getting a +2 to any single ability score, much like in 4e.

-The art is fantastic. Most of it is done by one of my favorite fantasy artists: Wayne Reynolds. Take the Barbarian class entry art, for example:

We don't have to look at ol' Krusk anymore. Here's the fighter:

While Regdar from the 3.5 PHB was awesome (and so is Todd Lockwood), I really liked how Wayne Reynolds made this guy gritty, rough, and ready.

Finally, the sorceress.

I think a "nuff said" is in order here.

Anyway, Pathfinder looks like a good successor to the original 3.5e D&D. If ever I'm going to run a new 3.5 game, it will be with this.

Here is the link to Paizo's online store. The PDF of the Pathfinder Beta release is FREE. You need to sign up for an account, but downloading it will incur no costs. :D

Encounters in 4e are the basic building blocks of conflict in the 4e universe.  To put it in simple terms, they usually come in two varieties:

• Combat Encounters
• Skill Challenges

Combat Challenges are by far the most common of the encounters that a GM will be working with, and its good to take a moment and go through an organized process as to coming up with them.  It's not just about a 10x10 room with an orc and a pie in it.

1. Objective - Why do I need this combat encounter?  What purpose does it serve?  The first problem with some combat encounters is that they sometimes don't make sense.  Unless the campaign itself is an unabashed dungeon crawl of the "kick in the door and kill anything that moves" variety, combat should have a purpose.  Make sure that the combatants are there for a reason, whether it's because they're guarding something, or out to achieve some sort of mission objective, or have some vendetta to resolve.
2. Who are the combatants? - This is actually a no brainer, but it's good to bring up anyway.  Combat encounters consist of groups of monsters / antagonists in 4e now, so it's a good idea to sort them into logical groups.  The DMG has some excellent examples of group templates of mixed roles, but feel free to mix it up to what makes sense.  Wizards of the Coast just recently came up with an Encounter Builder Tool that will help save some time when it comes to coming up with monster groups to challenge the party with.
3. Where are they fighting? - Another good question is location. Like I mentioned in the 4e: Basic Training article, terrain plays a huge part in making combat dynamic.  When designing a combat encounter, consider what scenery you can slap onto a battlefield that both the players and the monsters can use to their advantage.  Pits, Spikes, Fire and other hazards should be more than just dungeon dressing now.  Don't forget to get creative when you're outside of the usual dungeons either.  Slippery ice that inhibits movement, the pitching and rolling of a ship trying to ride it's way through a storm, and a combat interrupted by a stampede of wild animals are all valid things to change the battlefield and make it more than just a static location.
4. Victory Conditions - How do the players win this combat?  The standard answer is "When they've killed all the monsters" which might be the lazy reply.  Monsters of any stripe (unless they're automatons or undead) usually manifest some fight or flight instinct.  Seeing comrades fall to the adventurer's blades should at least affect morale.  Only zealots, highly disciplined soldiers, the insane, or suicidal will fight to the last man.  That being said, be a fair GM and allow players to collect experience gained from the entire encounter even if some of the combatants flee.  It's good to keep in mind that experience is from surviving or managing the encounter, not necessarily for wholesale slaughter.
5. Losing Conditions - Losing is not always defined as getting killed.  Most monsters may benefit from holding the adventurers prisoner, for information, or at the very least, for food or slaves.  This gives the players a chance to safely experience "losing" once or twice.  Don't make this too common though, as making every TPK a capture will dull your GMing teeth and will result in the players no longer taking the game seriously.  In addition, sometimes, the death of one of the NPCs is all that's needed for the enemy to win, especially when the objective is assassination.  Upon achieving the objective the enemies will more or less look for a way to fall back.
6. Escape Conditions - Speaking of falling back, enemies of the smarter variety will have ways to cover their retreat.  Whether it's through sneaky skulking about, or magical extraction methods, or the good old "set fire to the castle / village / etc" trick to force the adventurers to shift priorities, covering your escape is a very good thing.

And there you have it.  This is basically a surface level approach to encounter design, to help GMs put their combat encounters into perspective.  As long as the encounter has a purpose, with clearly defined participants, in a dynamic location, and with appropriate responses to losing, winning and even covering their tracks, all your combat encounters will be fun, memorable and challenging.

Next up: An Encounter Builder Checklist for Skill Challenges

Free download here!

I have just skimmed some of it but I like the direction its taking. Once I absorb it I will post about it. Also, once we all give it a go on the table we'll really have a good idea of what's what in D&D land.

Huh? What's that I hear? Is that the sound of Matt weeping and clutching his healing surges?

Take a chance and stunt - Sure there's no Trip and no Disarm, but it doesn't mean you can't try.  In a fit of old school mentality 4e has dispensed of these in favor of giving the GM room to interpret these stunts on their own.  A trip attack for example, may call for an attack roll vs Reflex defense, and should it be successful, the victim ends up Prone.  It's not specific to the book, but any GM worth his salt should be able to cobble something together rather than say "Nope, you can't do that."

Don't forget your Skills - Sure you've got Powers, but skills are useful even in combat.  Consider creative applications of skills, whether it's a Bluff check to draw the enemy towards you as a taunt, or even an Arcana Roll to figure out the Ritual being performed to keep the gateway to the Shadowfell open.  GMs are highly encouraged to take these efforts and reward smart play outside of the combat powers.

There is no I in Team - This is an old adage and 4e has taken it and made it into a core feature.  No singe class stands alone (yes, even the Paladin), and each one magnifies in efficiency once teamed up with other classes.  Talk with your fellow players and see how you can synchronize and build on each other's abilities.  The Warlord is a prime example of a class whose entire purpose is to galvanize the team into greater feats of heroism, but all the classes have something to benefit the group in a combat situation.  Also, don't forget that Aid Another is a Standard Action.  If one of the characters has a Daily Power that will benefit the team early on and lasts the entire encounter, consider giving up an attack for the round to Aid him in his attack, then use your move action to position yourself.

Where you fight matters - 4e has a huge emphasis on terrain and dungeon features.  Traps, pits, lava and other hazardous terrain will feature prominently in set piece battles.  This is where paying attention to the GM and the map pays off.  If anything 4e is very flexible in the number of things you can do with it, so when it doubt, ask the GM if you can use a certain feature to your advantage.  Shove monsters into lava, use your special abilities to drive them back into that wall of fire.  Swing from the chandelier to gain an extra boost in your to hit if you make that acrobatics roll.  4e is dynamic, and your characters should reflect that.  As a GM I have no qualms about using the same features against characters.

Spread out but don't go Solo - Positioning is key in 4e, so learning to put yourself where you'll be of best use to the party is a skill that every 4e player should pick up.  It's a delicate balance between sticking close enough together to be able to quickly focus fire or outflank a target, and yet being spread out enough to make sure you can minimize the damage from enemy Area of Effect attacks.  A quick tip to remember is that party members provide cover for you, so ranged characters like Wizards and Bow Rangers will find that staying in the back row provides an additional measure of defense without sacrificing your chances to hit.

Flanking for Fun and Profit - Exploit your Shift and move abilities, if anything, they will allow your party to gain Combat Advantage against your targets swiftly and with minimal risk.  The lower level 4e game still has a noticable Whiff factor so stack all the possible bonuses to hit that you can, the easiest of which to get would be the Combat Advantage from flanking.

Identify the Minions - This straddles metagaming territory, but ask the GM about the enemies you're up against in the encounter.  Note if there are any particular ones that are a) numerous and b) similarly outfitted.  You can be pretty sure that those are Minions with 1 hp.  If you don't have a Controller, focus fire on the Minions first as they have similar AC to non-minions and deal an average level of damage.  They're cheap on the experience table, and the GM can afford to mob you with them.

Stack Conditions on Tough Opponents - This may seem like a no brainer, but it bears repeating.  A high level Orc Solo is far more dangerous than a blind, immobile, helpless and prone high level Orc Solo.

Roleplaying has a place in combat - This last tip is one I always like to see in a fight.  Not all your opponents are non-sentient beings.  Sometimes judicious use of Bluff and Diplomacy and some good old fashioned roleplaying can actually swing the tide of battle.  A well delivered speech imploring for peace and dialogue between two warring clans, accompanied by a good diplomacy roll might actually terminate hostilities entirely, and possibly entail a greater experience reward by applying creative solutions to resolving the conflict.

That's what I've come up with so far, nothing class specific and nothing to do with builds and numbers.  It's all simple, practical application of basic tactics that will work in any game admittedly, but 4e supports most of these with actual rules.  So good luck on your battles, and I hope that this article comes in useful.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/updates

Our L5r campaign's going to be going on it's last session next week, now that the players are all available to show up for the game.  This means I've got two weeks to start making good on my job to make good on the D&D campaigns.

Just to recap, I've got a group of about 10 regular players at the moment, which I've split into two teams.  I'll be running each team on alternating weeks.  As I've discussed in my earlier posts, one team is the more story oriented guys with less focus on tactics (though that's beginning to change, I feel) and the other is more tactics oriented (which started off on the wrong foot in their first 4e battle)

I've decided to allow for changes to characters, swapping out powers and whatnot after this first session since it's everyone's first try in 4e.  One of the players in the tactical team is replacing his wizard with a ranger this time, and I've allowed him to keep whatever exp he's earned so far.  Better to keep them all on even ground.

4e presents an interesting opportunity for me since I've never really run a full campaign of D&D before.  I'm currently pulling on all my previous experience of having run games such as HERO System, Legend of the Five Rings, Mage: the Ascension, Mage: the Awakening and other games.  Now I find myself tackling the grand daddy of rpgs, and it's certainly calling for a paradigm shift on my part, both in the planning phase and the running.

I wouldn't necessarily call it an "old school" style of play, but here's what I've got so far after comparing my usual GMing practices vs that of 4e:

• Freeform Combat vs. Tactical Combat - This is a pretty much a no-brainer.  WoD and L5R have movement rules, but don't really rely on grids like HERO and D&D.  This isn't such a big shift with me, but the moment the grids see use, I have to make an extra effort to keep narrating the scene with vivid descriptions.  It's just too easy to fall back to the "The goblin chucks a javelin at you." *rolls* "hits." *rolls* "And does six damage, are you bloodied yet?"  It's a big no-no for me as a GM since I'm usually more descriptive when I run L5R or nWoD.
• Planning dilemmas vs. Planning encounters - Conflict is traditionally an organic development of opposing interests.  Fights, arguments, political maneuvering... all of this happens within context.  My earlier paradigm with nWoD and L5R was to seed the conflicts with opposing interests then put the player characters in and see what happens.  In D&D I find myself looking over lists of enemies first, seeding a dungeon then trying to think of a rationale.  I highly suspect that I'm going about this the wrong way but that's what the blog is for.  It'll be good to hear the opinion of others.

These slight shifts to my normal GMing paradigm concern me, but I'll be re-evaluating how I'm doing things with the help of the blog to see if I can reconcile these while I'm planning out the next few sessions of the campaign I'm running.

Wish me luck!

To be fair I decided to scale the encounter to the higher end of "Standard Difficulty" in the DMG.  I don't want to go into too much detail, but after a whole bunch of unfortunate circumstances, the party, which consisted of  a Drow Rogue, an Eladrin Wizard, an Eladrin Warlock and a Tiefling Paladin, was soon reduced to the Rogue and Warlock.  As the wizard fell first, and the paladin fell beneath the concentrated efforts of the goblins to take down the guy in shiny full plate.

With some fancy invisibility tricks and stealth tactics, the two remaining party members managed to hold their own and whittle down the numbers of the goblins until the goblins declared a retreat and abandoned the field.

If anything, this experience has taught the party about the intricacies of combat, the importance of teamwork, and how even Goblins of this level are a serious threat to life and limb.

Observations:

• Terrain advantage is a big factor - Since it was an ambush the Goblins enjoyed terrain advantage and used it mercilessly to their advantage.
• There is no "I" in team - 4e characters are built to work together, going off solo destroys party cohesion and makes it easier for the opponents to pick off the party one by one.
• Players must establish ooc tactical dialogue with each other - Unlike in WoD games, where I usually make sure that the players avoid OOC tactics discussions in combat, D&D 4e needs this kind of planning  when taking on threats.
• Leaders are valuable members of the party - If the team had a Leader (like they were supposed to), they would have had a lot more staying power in combat, allowing them space to make more mistakes without suffering for it.
• Tracking Conditions, Bonuses and Penalties is crucial - One of the things I noticed is that there's a whole lot of bonuses, penalties and conditions flying around once the battle is engaged.  That said, the GM has to set up some sort of protocol where he can trust the players to track their conditions, as he tracks the conditions on the monsters.

Overall it was a good learning experience for me and the players.  Even those in the other team (like Heineken) took it as a chance to study how combat works and see how his character (a Warlord) could have reacted to the situations in the fight.

In this episode of Barbarian Needs Food, Evan and Paul talk about Dungeons & Dragons 3.0 and 3.5, a role-playing game of high fantasy in realms of magic and monsters.

Discussion includes: an in-depth look at basic game mechanics, a brief digression into the philosophy of role playing, discussion of differences of earlier versions, tips on how to prevent players from abusing certain rules, and examination of the d20 System and Open Game License developments.

NEXT EPISODE:

Kavashi is noble, and good. She is very charismatic, and strong, and though she is wise, she is not always intelligent. But she enjoys life and takes it as it comes.  Sometimes her goodness transfers into a kind of naivete. She thinks that there is no one in the world that doesn't have some amount of good in them.

Case in point. The other day she and her party, (consisting of a dwarf warlord, an elf cleric and a halfling rogue) delved into the sewers under a small town to clear it of the rat problem. Very large rats, at that.  They battled rats, kobolds, were-rats, and even a troll.  In the end they found themselves in a makeshift throne room standing before an aged were-rat.  The others imediatly wanted to either destroy the were-rat or run away. (which when they took count of the ogres, decided to run away). But not Kavashi.  She wanted to talk to the were-rat... he was intelligent in what he had said, and she felt more could be learned, or that this situation could be overcome without bloodshed.

Kavashi is a good fighter, but she does not enjoy it the way her companions do.  If she could, she would exhaust all possibilities to overcome a fight without resorting to vilance.  This is illustrated well in her high Diplomacy score.  (+15 I believe).  But it does not help that her companions often chomp at the bit when in sight of good battle. Especially her close dwarven warlord friend who enjoys a good hack and slash.

Kavashi is a silver dragon, with an ice cold breath weapon.  More often then not she uses her breath weapon not to hurt, but to aid. For example, last night she used it to freeze a giant bolder, held in the clutches of a large Foul Spawn, so that he would drop it, rather then blasting him with her breath.

Like all Drgonborn, Kavashi values honor.  She reminds me most of Cameron from the Dragonlance Chronicles.  It is strange that I should choose to play such a character, when I never really liked Cameron and was always more enamored of his brother Raistlin. Cameron is not stupid, but he is slow to think, or perhaps slow to act, which is a wise thing. He isn't rash.  He knows he is big, and strong, and can easily hurt other people, so he has learned to be careful of his strength, and to always consider a situation before taking physical action.  He is also more then willing to follow, and not overly interested in leading. Though when the situation calls for a leader, he doesn't shy away from the responsibility.

Kavashi is similar.  She often lets the other party members choose the course of action, and then tries to fit in as best she can.  The only times she tries to take the lead is when she believes an encounter can be completed without violence.  More often then not however, her pleas to consider tactics are ignored. She takes it with a grain of salt, but every time an intelligent creature dies because her friends are too rash, it strings her heart and soul.

Kavashi doesn't talk much about where she came from, or of her past.  She learned the Paladin art from an old knight, retired to a back country estate.  A farmer now, he had left the Paladin life behind.  He was a Dwarf, but like Kavashi abhored un-necissary violence, and so didn't fit in to well with his roudy kin.  He chose a life away from his dwarven clan, and so when he retired from being a Paladin, he packed his bags and headed off on his own. Traveling for years before finally resting on a spot of land, building a small cabin, and enjoying life.  Keeping fit by protecting the road into Dramendale (a large city) for travelers.

One day a carraige rolled through. A Dragonborn merchant on the way to Dramedale.  It was attacked by a horde of hobgoblin bandits with a troll in their midst. The dwarf faught valiantly to protect the female merchant and her handful of guards, but in the end all the dwarf could do was escape with his own life, and a silver speckled egg.

The egg hatched, and he soon found himself the caretaker of a young silver dragonborn.  He raised her like his daughter, despite the fact that she soon towered over him.  When she was old enough, he began teaching her the ways of the Paladin, and of the Goddess of luck, and adventure.  She helped the old dwarf to protect the roads from bandits.  She always hoped they would cross the hobgoblin band and the troll that had taken the life of her mother.

The dwarf was old, very old, and when he finally passed on, Kavashi was only 20.  She buried him behind his home and set off.  She spent four years searching for her father. The dwarf had told her that only one dragonborn had been in the carraige that was ambushed - her mother.  He did not know where the cart came from.  Kavashi went to Dramendale and asked around after Dragonborn Merchants. She found a few leads, but they were dead ends.

After 4 years she gave up. She met a dwarf Warlord on her journey back to Dramedale, and the two became friends.  In the gruff Warlord with his sarcastic sense of humor he reminded her of her adoptive father. So she traveled with him, becoming close friends and soon meeting up with the elf and the halfling. 

And that is her story.

“Foolish priest! You’ll announce us all to whatever lies down there.” snapped Nicolai angrily who assumed the the priest wanted to drop one in.

“Wait.” Nicolai cast a professional eye at the sheer surface of the pit. “We could tie a rope to one of the statues and lower ourselves in. It seems the only way on. I’d suggest going first but that will leave fewer strong backs to lower our metal-clad priest and Dwarf.”

Miklos elbowed his way passed Feldard and Nicolai. “Interesting….” he said scanning the script. “Not a word that I recognize in elvish …. Paah…. Is that how you would pronounce it Saeth? What do you think it is? A name?”

At the mage’s invokement of the elven scrawl, Nicolai saw a soft blue glow emanate from the bottom of the well. It was gradually getting brighter, as the lightsource seemed to start to rise up the wellshaft.

Ignoring the others Miklos had made his way over to the other side of the room and was trying to pronounce, with whatever elvish help he could muster the other word, “New-wood? Nieuwode? Neighward? Is that the correct pronunciation Hasan? I doesn’t make sense.”

At the mage’s recitation of the second word etched into the wall, Nicolai saw the lightsource reverse course and fade away, and the bottom of the well returned to a state of darkness.

Feldard took a long moment to appreciate the workmanship of the platinum statues - they were so life-like but for the life of him, the dwarf couldn’t fathom why the sculptor who choose such ridiculous poses - mid-swing or a victorious stance sure, but those goofy wide-smiling faces did little for the dwarf aestetically.

After motioning the others to the hallway, the dwarf maintained the lead, making his way past each of the statues, heading for the bronze double doors he noted at the far end of the hall.

Hasan followed the dwarf. The instability of the previous chamber was scary. The statuary, however, was much worse. “What could be the explanation for this?” mused Hasan. “It seems most unnatural. Why wouldn’t treasure seekers from ages past have plundered this? And why do all the statues show such happiness? Few artists would carry the theme so consistently through their work.” The elf shrank into his Siswa cloak as he walked forward, lost in thought.

Saeth moved to follow down the hallway, without quite as much introspection as Hasan. It seemed obvious enough that moving statues of this size would be impractical, and that breaking down an object of such worksmanship would be nothing less than sacrilege. She paused by the first figure, reaching up to run her hand down the Elf’s flowing platinum hair. It was truly amazing, the lifelike detail that the artist put into his work.

Stalking behind the dwarf Nicolai paused at the first statue. The dwarf gasping was of some concern until he realised what caused it. He was staring at enough wealth to buy an entire kingdom and right now it was about as much use as an entire kingdom. Still, it was useful to know where a very large stash of funds were sitting, even if you did have to get a crowd of dwarves to mine it out after the remains of the tower has sealed it in. Right now it was a distraction.

He turned around at Hasans comment and wondered at which work crew willing to work in such an environment he was thinking of. If they were removable the Rahib would have removed them already. Nicolai couldn’t see someone as single minded as the Rahib failing to miss an opportunity like that. But then again, he thought as his eyes landed on Maruc, religion can do strange things to you.

He spun back and with a few long strides caught up with Feldard before he started to open the doors, or something equally…ahh dwarvish!

He waved the protesting dwarf into silence and pressed his ear against the door before checking the frame and handle for anything out of the ordinary.

Satisifed the rogue stepped to one side, still with his sword in hand, and backed out of Feldard’s way.

The young priest had seen many rich wonders adorning the cathedrals of the Traladaran Church. Maruc had always felt them an extravagance especially with the poor of the congregation supporting such edificies. These reminded him of this and it knotted his stomach. He turned his face away and joined the others at the doorway.

“Come come! Look at these beautiful pieces!” said Miklos awed as the light from his lightstone splinted off the myriad untarneshed facets of the statue oi front of him. “Look at the workmanship. Stunning.” His eyes ran to the cracked and blackened roof. “Its tragic really, to be buried in this pit for ‘beauty craves to be beheld or it is as nothing’ or so my lecturer in ancient arts said. Come my friends let us liberate this pit of its ‘Sisters of Death’ that we might return these wonders to your people! And others no doubt!” he strode off to join the rest at the double doors.

The dwarf opened the doors, and immediately felt a cool breeze brush against his beard. Ahead was a large circular room, with a domed ceiling overhead, cracked and damaged, but apparently stable. A 10-foot diameter well dropped down into darkness from the center of the room. Four more exquisitely rendered platinum statues stood around the well. Soft moans whispered throughout the room.

A single word, written in elven script—“Paah”—was carved in the wall between the eastern and northern statue. Another word—“Neuwoud”—was carved on the opposite side of the room, between the eastern and southern statues. Neither word was known to any in the group.