Posts tagged ‘D&D’
DDOcast 290
This week Sig, Anne, Geoff (http://www.ddogamer.com), and Patrick (Shamgar’s Epic Ed) have a whopping two hours of DDO news, more talk about reincarnation, upcoming XP and enhancement changes, DDOGamer gets into collectibles, we get into reading letters sent in by listeners, DDO community events, and even a bit of good old D&D news.
Related Links
- DDO Update 18 Patch 2 Release Notes
- Guild renown decay Summer Vacation
- Queset XP Changes Coming Soon! From Turbine Dev PurpleFooz
- Latest Update from Our Favorite QA Guy Major Malphunktion
- Trubine Dev SteelStar Has More on Enhancement changes
- DDO Store Sales thru June 27th
- DDOGamer Digest on DDO Collectible System
- Shamgar’s Heroic Commendations suggestions
- DDO Halfling Summer Games continues on Khyber
- More on DDO Hunger Games PvP event
- The Next Borderlands 2 DLC is like a D&D Campaign with Tiny Tina
- Neverwinter officially Launched on June 20th
- Retro D&D Video Games: Chronicles of Mystara: A faithful re-release, warts and all
- Forbes Interview with Mike Mearls “After A Year Playtesting A New Dungeons & Dragons, What’s Next?”
- The New Dungeons & Dragons Goes To Print In “Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle”
DDOcast 278 – D&D LIVE! “The Rescue of Mr. Tibbles”
DDOcast 278 – D&D LIVE! “The Rescue of Mr. Tibbles”
Hey! its a Special DDOcast! Flying kobolds, a kidnapped elvish cat, Quickfoot ruffians on the loose! Will the party be able to save the day? Join Tolero, Cordovan, Geoff, Anne and Sig as DM on their D&D Live game on G+ Hangouts!
Anne’s Eberron Book Sale! + DDO Bonus Pack
So I’m still trying to raise money for GenCon and if you want to help AND want to get a good deal on some D&D books consider taking a look at my stuff and visiting my eBay store or visit my store blog! Here’s a small selection of D&D v3.5 D20 Eberron books. If you think the price is too high, think about “Making an Offer”; just click on an item then click on the “Make Offer” button on the eBay listing!
For today through this weekend only, If you buy all my remaining D&D Eberron 3.5 d20 books and send me a message saying “YARK! Yark! I like playing with DDOcast kobolds!” when you check out your order. I’ll include a DDO bonus items:
- 1 Large DDO Menace of the Underdark T-Shirt
- 1 DDO PAX Prime 2010 Side Bag
- 1 Drow Assassin Figure
- 1 Purple DDO Dice Bag
- 1 Menace of the Underdark Expansion Key
- Discount shipping. Don’t worry, I’ll resend an invoice!
[ebayfeedsforwordpress feed=”http://www.ebay.com/sch/StannexMart/_i.html?rt=nc&_nkw=eberron&_rss=1&_rssstore=1″ items=”10″]
Dungeons & Dragons Online: Shadowfell Conspiracy Announced
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Wizards of the Coast have announced that Dungeons & Dragons Online: Shadowfell Conspiracy, the second expansion to be of course developed by Turbine. The new expantion will launch this summer, adding in a new level cap of 28 and a new “Iconic Heroes” system where players can create characters starting at level 15.
Shadowfell Conspiracy will also include two new Forgotten Realms Adventure Packs:
- Wheloon: a prison city full of irredeemable criminals and traitors to the Crown. In this place, Netherese agents conspire to forge an army out of the Kingdom’s enemies. You must masquerade as a traitor to infiltrate the Prison City, fight marauding criminal gangs, and destroy the army before it marches – all the while battling creatures made out of the very shadows.
- Stormhorns: deep in the Stormhorn Mountains, the Netherese Empire prepares to unleash its secret weapon against the Kingdom of Cormyr. Brave treacherous mountain passes through griffon territory and overcome cunning harpy ambushes. At the peaks of the mighty Stormhorns, you must overcome an alliance of giants and monstrous creatures – only to have to contend with a terrible Netherese secret weapon.
Bonus for Table-Top D&D players, if your interested in the Shadowfell Conspiracy you can now download the first of this adventure series as a PDFs at DriveThru RPG. You can get dead-tree versions of the rest you can get at Amazon.com
- H1: Keep on the Shadowfell
- H2 Thunderspire Labyrinth
- H3 Pyramid of Shadows
- The Shadowfell Source Book: Gloomwrought and Beyond
WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT AND WIZARDS OF THE COAST UNVEIL DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ONLINE®: SHADOWFELL CONSPIRACY™
NEEDHAM, MA – 26th February 2013 – Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Wizards of the Coast unveiled today Dungeons & Dragons Online®: Shadowfell Conspiracy™, the second expansion to the award-winning free-to-play massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG) developed by Turbine. Shadowfell Conspiracy takes place in the beloved Forgotten Realms setting, features an increased level cap, introduces new Iconic Heroes and much more!
“Last year we expanded the world of DDO into the Forgotten Realms universe with the launch of our first expansion,” said Erik Boyer, Senior Producer of DDO. “This year we’re introducing more content and making it even easier to experience the latest content with the introduction of Iconic Heroes that begin at level 15, allowing players to jump right into the action.”
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ONLINE: SHADOWFELL CONSPIRACY FEATURES:
Ø Two New Forgotten Realms Adventure Packs — Featuring gorgeous new wilderness areas packed with new D&D monsters, dangerous encounters and a host of challenging dungeons.
o Wheloon: Horrors from the Shadowfell pour into Wheloon, a prison city full of irredeemable criminals and traitors to the Crown. In this place, Netherese agents conspire to forge an army out of the Kingdom’s enemies. Masquerade as a traitor to infiltrate the Prison City, fight marauding criminal gangs, and destroy the army before it marches – all the while battling creatures made out of the very shadows.
o Stormhorns: Deep in the Stormhorn Mountains, the Netherese Empire prepares to unleash its secret weapon against the Kingdom of Cormyr. Brave treacherous mountain passes through griffon territory and overcome cunning harpy ambushes. At the peaks of the mighty Stormhorns, overcome an alliance of giants and monstrous creatures – only to have to contend with a terrible Netherese secret weapon.
Ø Introducing Iconic Heroes — Jump into the action of DDO with these new prestige characters that start in Forgotten Realms at level 15 and feature unique looks and skills. Each of these classic D&D heroes is a paragon of their race and class and features custom iconic gear, appearance options and new abilities to enhance their power.
Ø Attain Epic level to 28 — Master your destiny and gain new epic feats and spells with three new Epic levels of advancement that let you reach new levels of power.
Dungeons & Dragons Online® (DDO) is a free-to-play MMORPG featuring the industry’s best combat system, a massive world with state-of-the-art graphics and gameplay, and a rich set of features that until now could only be found in premium subscription-based MMOs. DDO offers an innovative pricing model that allows players to download and play for free, purchasing adventure packs, items, and account services a la carte from the new DDO Store, or to subscribe to get unlimited access to all of the game’s content. Players can download and play DDO Unlimited for free by visiting http://www.ddo.com.
About Turbine
Turbine, Inc. is a premier creator and operator of massive, persistent online worlds that foster powerful social gaming communities. Turbine is wholly owned by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group and has created some of the world’s most popular and award-winning online games, including The Lord of the Rings Online™, Dungeons & Dragons Online® , and Asheron’s Call®. For more information on Turbine, its products and services please visit www.turbine.com.
About Hasbro
Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS) is a branded play company providing children and families around the world with a wide-range of immersive entertainment offerings based on the Company’s world class brand portfolio. From toys and games, to television programming, motion pictures, video games and a comprehensive licensing program, Hasbro strives to delight its customers through the strategic leveraging of well-known and beloved brands such as TRANSFORMERS, LITTLEST PET SHOP, NERF, PLAYSKOOL, MY LITTLE PONY, G.I. JOE, MAGIC: THE GATHERING and MONOPOLY. The Hub, Hasbro’s multi-platform joint venture with Discovery Communications (NASDAQ: DISCA, DISCB, DISCK) launched on October 10, 2010. The online home of The Hub is www.hubworld.com. The Hub logo and name are trademarks of Hub Television Networks, LLC. All rights reserved. Come see how we inspire play through our brands at http://www.hasbro.com. © 2010 Hasbro, Inc. All Rights Reserved
About Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast LLC, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS), is the leader in entertaining the lifestyle gamer. The company holds an exclusive patent on trading card games (TCGs) and their method of play and produces the premier trading card game, Magic: The Gathering, among many other trading card games and family card and board games. Wizards is also a leading publisher of role-playing games, such as Dungeons & Dragons, and publisher of fantasy series fiction with numerous New York Times best-sellers. For more information, visit the Wizards of the Coast Web site at www.wizards.com.
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Dungeons & Dragons Online, Eberron Unlimited, Stormreach, Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering and Wizards of the Coast and related logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the U.S. and/or other jurisdictions, and are used with permission. Hasbro and its logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Hasbro, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other jurisdictions, and are used with permission. Turbine and the Turbine logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Turbine, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other jurisdictions. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Senior Producer Eric Boyer’s 7th Anniversary Letter
This is going to be another amazing year for DDO and I am excited to get to share with you some big news on our plans. Just last week, we launched Update 17 where we got the chance to go back to Gianthold and give it a refresh. We managed to put some giants into Gianthold, not to mention more dragons and that infamous Dracolitch we’ve been talking about since year one. It’s challenging but also exciting when we get the chance to update beloved DDO features to make them even better, and you’ll see that happening on a few different fronts this year. On that topic, I know what you all want to hear about! And yes, its true, – we’ll be overhauling our bug reporting tool with updated functionality to help us capture even more of your problem details and feedback, and process them more efficiently. With that news, I know now, you are thinking, “that sounds really good… but I was sort of thinking of the rumors of an updated character enhancements system.” And I also have great news to share on that!
Work on the new enhancement system is well underway and it will be heading to its first public beta this spring. In its current iteration, each class has at least two prestige class paths. The UI, similar to the Epic Destiny tree, will be a long awaited simplification to planning your character build, but more importantly, the goal is to make better choices more accessible for both new and advanced players in the heroic levels. We are planning an extended beta for this one. We’ll be doing multiple trips to Lamannia and lots of player events to give us all an opportunity to try it on various characters and gather lots of feedback.
Another area where you will see several changes is in the introduction of more uses for Astral Diamond shards throughout our game. Volume 3 of the monster manual, which is now available as of Update 17, not only offers a chance to earn your own beholder pet, we also now let you earn direct-to-pocket Astral Shards. In the near future we will add more ways for you to earn free shards as well as some compelling new ways to use them to enhance your DDO gaming experience.
As I have always said, one of the strengths of DDO is great adventures to undertake and that is why I am most pleased to announce DDO’s second expansion titled ‘Shadowfell Conspiracy’ coming this summer! We are turning our attention back to the Forgotten Realms and we are taking you to some new regions in Cormyr. We will be taking brave heroes, level 15 and up, to a foreboding prison city to the south east of Eveningstar called Wheloon, and high up into the Stormhorn Mountains, north of the high road.
Shadowfell Conspiracy will have more than just new quests and regions, we will also be raising the level cap to 28 and providing something often requested by fans: faster access to the Forgotten Realms! With a new prestige character feature we are calling Iconic Heroes; we think we have an innovative solution that will get you right into the Forgotten Realms starting at level 15. Each of these Forgotten Realms born characters will start as a race class combination with new racial abilities. I can’t wait to tell you more about these characters in the coming months.
Later in the year we have some other great stories planned and we plan to focus our attention on the True Reincarnation options and update the system to work for Epic level players. Epic True Reincarnation would also introduce a new completionist track. What would two more stat points do to your TR character? Well, stay tuned this summer for an update on our development progress!
PAX Prime 2012: Ask The Dungeon Master
This aired Friday, August 31st at PAX Prime 2012 weekend.
Being a great Dungeon Master requires a variety of skills. Part referee, part storyteller, and part actor; the art of the Dungeon Master is in combining these talents to become a superhuman, D&D-propelling package. Join D&D staff members as they discuss various tips and tricks to bring the best adventure to your players, as well as ways to make them equal participants in the story. A Q&A session will follow the panel discussion.
Panelists: Chris Perkins, Jeremy Crawford, Mike Mearls, Rodney Thompson
PAX Prime 2012: 13th Age and Dungeon World: Old School RPGs With Modern Design
Just recently, Gabe annouced that he wanted to play 13th Age!! Woot!
During PAX weekend Anne mostly worked at the 13th Age table at the Indy Table Top game rooms along side Dungeon World and Gamma Ray Games. She also recorded a couple of panels for 13th Age and below is one of those videos she put together.
We want to give a big shout out to Fire Opal Games and to Rob Heinsoo, Jay Schneider and Wade Rocket. With out them Anne wouldn’t have been able to even go to PAX this year!
13th Age, Dungeon World and More: Old School RPGs With Modern Design
A new wave of tabletop roleplaying games is re-imagining the classic dungeon-crawling RPG. Hear the designers discuss how they do it, and perhaps more importantly, why they do it.
PANELISTS: Wade Rockett [Rockett Science], Rob Heinsoo [Fire Opal Media], Sage LaTorra [Sage Kobold Productions], Adam Koebel [Sage Kobold Productions], Logan Bonner
Related Links:
PAX Prime 2012: Future of D&D
This aired on Saturday, September 1st during PAX Prime 2012 Weekend.
The next iteration of Dungeons & Dragons is on its way! Join D&D Senior Manager Mike Mearls and others in a Q&A about the next iteration of D&D, and how the open playtest is using fan feedback to help shape the future of the game.
Panelists include Jeremy Crawford, Mike Mearls, Rodney Thompson
NOTE: You’ll want to skip to time 5:15.
DDOcast 243
DDOcast is a weekly DDO podcast created by fans for fans! We discuss nearly everything related to Dungeons and Dragons Online – Eberron Unlimited.
Episode 243 is ready! Here’s a LINK to the episode – just left-click to play, right-click and ‘save as’ to download as an mp3. You can find DDOcast on iTunes, the Zune Marketplace and Cyberears.com.
This week we’ve got a special Festivult Episode just for you! Sig and Anne also bring you the latest DDO news from Turbine and the community! We also have some great segments from Skaggy, Ecgric and Shamgar!
This episode’s music is ITS BEGINNING TO LOOK LIKE FISHMEN from the H.P. Lovecraft Socieity’s Holiday album A VERY SCARY SOLSTICE. You can buy this album and learn more about HPLS at http://www.cthulhulives.org/
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DDOcast Episode 243 (12-17-11)
0:00:39 Intro
0:01:34 DDO News
0:04:56 DDOcast News
0:05:19 A Message from the Kobold Relief Fund
0:07:36 Sponsor Break
0:09:02 What is FESTIVULT?
0:13:26 Skaggy the Poet’s DDO Poetry Corner
0:17:44 Ecgric’s Premium Perspective:
0:23:47 Shamgar’s Epic Education
0:33:18 Whatcha been doing in DDO?
0:36:14 Sponsor Break: Dangerous Cookies?!
0:38:41 DDO Community News
0:46:25 Sponsor Break: Festivult Coin Collector Set!
0:47:40 Crunchy Bits Build: Festivult Jester Build
0:58:22 Lightning Post: Festivult Poetry, Raid Rewards, Assasin Trap Monkeys!
1:07:51 DDO Festivult Poetry: The Night Before Patch Day
1:10:30 General Gaming News
1:12:14 Playing First Edition AD&D!
1:15:36 Closing
END
TOTAL TIME: 1:18:10
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LINK for Festivult Wallpaper!
LINK for DDO Festivult Dec 2011 Cookie List
LINK for DDO Update 12 Patch 2 Release Notes
LINK for DDO Store Sales & Specials
LINK for More of Skaggy’s Poetry!
LINK for Mr. Inside the Monestary – Alex Haddox’s Website
LINK for “Practical Home Security: A Guide to Safer Urban Living”
LINK for Shamgar’s Buidling Blocks #1: DDO 101 Lessons!
LINK for Shamgar’s Buidling Blocks #2
LINK for Shamgar’s Buidling Blocks #3
LINK for Shamgar’s DDO Weapon Statistics on Google Docs
LINK for Ecgric’s Premium Perspective Website
LINK for Eberron Chronicle
LINK for Mjoll’s Monster Information Project
LINK for GuntharBovine has updated his “Make Money Fast” guide
LINK for ForumGenerated’s 12 days of Festivult list
LINK for Inferus Adepts – A new raid mentoring program for Thelanis Server
LINK for IncindieLune is organizing a guild salute video project on Orien
LINK for Annual X-Mas Wizards of the Coast Layoffs
LINK for Krampus!
LINK for How to Record a Segment for DDOcast!
Annual X-mas Wizards of the Coast Layoffs
Rich Baker @ Wizards Community BlogToday, Wizards of the Coast eliminated my position. I have unfortunately been let go, after more than 20 years of employment with TSR/WotC.
Rich was at the forefront of Wizards of the Coast’s range of Forgotten Realms and core Third Edition D&D accessory books, and author of several novels set in and below Faerûn. He also answered questions about the Forgotten Realms at the Wizards website’s forums – see the below external links. He also headed design on the 4th edition D&D iteration of the Dark Sun Campaign Setting, along with numerous other credits for that edition of the game.
Also rumored to be let go was Steve Winter who joined TSR in 1981 as Games Editor.
Right on schedule WotC:
- Dec 2000 WotC Layoffs @ TheForce.NET
- Mar 2001 WotC Layoffs @ Salon – WotC Center in Seattle Closed
- Sept 2002 WotC Layoffs @ RPG.NET
- Jan 2003 WotC Layoffs @ The Seattle Times
- Dec 2005 WotC Layoffs @ Steve Jackson Games Forums
- Dec 2008 WotC Layoffs @ GameGrene.com
- Dec 2009 WotC Layoffs @ ENWorld
- May 2010 WotC Layoffs @ ENWorld
- July 2011 WotC Layoffs @ ICV2 (Also on ENWorld)
You can follow the Dec 2011 Layoff discussion at ENWorld’s Forum.
Nearly an annual trend ever since Hasbro acquired Wizards of the Coast in 1999 and it looks like there are not many of the old D&D guard on the permanent payroll.
D&D Virtual Table Open Beta for DDI Subscribers
Steve Winter, WotCAs a limited time bonus to DDI Subscribers, Wizards of the Coast is excited to extend an invitation for you to participate in the Dungeons & Dragons Virtual Table Open Beta! The D&D Virtual Table provides an online environment where DMs and players can get together for a session of D&D, no matter where they are in the world. Build maps, create characters, and run private or public D&D sessions. This is your chance to get in on some games and check out the features of this easy-to-use tool.
Playing table top D&D (any edition) is good news in our book! Give it a try and give your feed back to Wizards of the Coast!
66% Done: A PAX Prime 2011 Report
Day 1: Destroying Plans & Having Fun Doing it!
One of the few hottest days of the year in Seattle also happened to coincide with the first day of PAX Prime 2011. Outside the Washington State Convention Center it was 82°F (28°C), but it felt like near 90°F (32°F) due to humidity.
Failed horridly at trying to get to the Key Note this year; I should have stopped and RTFM! But on the plus side all huge lectures are now at the Paramount Theater. Yes, I do not miss the days when it was held in a cement hall. I hope to the Live D&D Game on Day 2 of PAX.
I also got the day wrong on Marcy Rockwell’s book The Shard Axe signing wrong. (Ouch! That’s like two gutter balls in a row, if I was bowling.) It’s on Sat @ 11:30am in the Warner Brothers / Turbine Booth #932, not Friday! Ugh.
At Noon we had our interview Fernando and as usual he was on par with all the tidbits we were looking for as DDO fans! I won’t say too much here because I want to save it for the show, but I think with the new digital voice recorder & HD mic I got really did a better job than last year’s setup! I hope to have it all edited out for Ep 231 of DDOcast. Here are a few teasers:
- Talked about Update 11
- New technologies implemented in DDO
- Inspirations for Update 11 and Artificers
- House Cannith Quests and Raid Previews
- Fairness in the DDO Stores and Online Transactions
- And Of course some more screen images of DDO U11
As a side note, I have to say that Turbine was combined with the with WB games booth, so it wasn’t the total Turbine booth as it was last year. Understandably, PAX East in Boston is gonna be their main stay since it’s in their back yard. Regardless, I want to thank the Turbine Crew for taking the time to see us at PAX! You guys are awesome!
During the interview with Fernando, my digital camera started taking mutant pictures and died! You know when GS or Icy Regiments perma break? Well that’s what it feels like when your camera breaks at PAX. So we spent our Expo Hall touring time out getting a new camera.
Armed with a new camera, we met for our happy hours DDOcast meet-up in the TAP House Bar. We saw up with Marcy Rockwell and her hubby; And Marcy gifted us with a signed copy of The Shard Axe! I can’t wait to read! We also met with Phite & Ms. Phite, and Shamgar. We drank, ate tasty foods, talked DDO, games, writing, and PAX. Chatting went well beyond 6pm! Ahh the best laid plans of Mice and Men often go awry! Of course I didn’t go to the panel on Journalism!
The WB Games/Turbine PAX Party was really packed! We got VIP tickets and cut the lines into Gamesworks. Free food, Xbox game stations, shirts, buttons, cos-players, in-game swag cards, bags, free-play arcade game cards, and (thanks to Phite) I ended up with more booze tickets then they were given out! They also held a raffle for some bigger prizes. Both Phite and I ended up with a Lifetime Membership to DDO!
Overall, day one felt like a hurricane (whoops! poor choice of words for the East coast folk! I hope everyone is doing okay out there!) It was a very busy day wandering around and chatting up with friends, I learned later from a friend that the panels were packed and the lines were long. Though its super crowded, the best part about PAX is everyone is super friendly; sure we bump into each other but everyone is happy. After “sorries” are said, its a good reason to start talking games with another PAXite!