The second issue, and far worse is the frequency of jams and ball chops which occur.  All too often you get lined up for that perfect shot, or are making a suicidal dash only to have the marker fail on you.  These issues can be mitigated in a number of ways.  First, try to use a thick/hard shelled paintball.  If necessary, buy a 500 shot bag of really good paint just for the TPX (at 8 shots a clip it will take awhile to get through one bag).  The problem is that softer shelled paint will get crushed under the pressure of the clip.  This will cause it to either get stuck in the receiver, or load too slowly and get chopped.

I would not recommend using the TPX as an on-field backup.  If you’re using your primary marker and carrying the TPX as a just-in-case backup, I’ve found that you’d be better off just walking off the field than switching to it.  Leaving paintballs in the clips for long periods of time, or getting warm because the clips are close to your body heat will cause jams and chops more frequently (even with better paint).  I’ve had the most success when I used the TPX exclusively for a game, as there will be less time for the pressure in the clip to warp the paintballs.  If you are using it as an on-field backup, leave the clips empty until you decide to switch markers, then bunker down and load your clips.

The Tippmann TPX is a fun marker, but it takes a lot more care to keep it working as desired then I’d like.  The accuracy is good, though an upgraded barrel or barrel sizing kit might go a long way to improving that accuracy.  When the marker is working, it is a fun and exciting way to play paintball.  You can move fast and quiet since you need very little gear and you’re going to take very few shots.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Dark Heresy puts the players into the roles of acolytes of an Inquisitor in the universe of Warhammer 40K.  I’ve never been a player of Warhammer miniatures games, so I was pleased to find that the book contained enough information to convey the basic information necessary to play the game without having to know the long history of the Warhammer 40K universe.  Primarily the game functions as a investigation horror game, similar to games like Call of Cthulhu or Supernatural; PCs investigate what mystery is afoot than then try to defeat or at least survive the big-bad at the end of the adventure.  This is a rough approximation, but it gives you a good idea of how the game is intended to be played.

Character creation was relatively easy, players have the option to “trust in the Emperor” and use random tables to determine character creation, or make those choices on their own.  We ended up using a combination of the two approaches, which seemed to work well.  In place of races, PCs can choose from four home-world types, each with its own feel but not too restrictive—there is no perfect combination for a given character type to force players down a single path.  The game uses a character class system, where each class has lightly branching trees of options available to them.  On the downside, there is no way to multiclass like in other systems, but you could theoretically create any character using any class because most of the skills and talents are available to all classes.

The game system uses two d10s as percentile die for almost all rolls in the game, and functionally is a roll-below your attribute system.  Combat is relatively easy, but incorporates enough crunch to appease combat focused players as you can utilize a manageable number of tactics to improve your odds of success on a given attack.  Skill checks function the same way, where you want to roll low but can try to use some techniques or GM difficulty determinations to improve odds of success (this is very similar to the Hackmaster Basic skill system).  However like Hackmaster the odds of success for using an untrained skill are very low (averaging 15-16% chance of success without modifiers).  An additional component of the percentile roll is degrees of success/failure, where for every 10 you succeed or fail represents a greater result (or more potential damage if in combat).

Where I think the game shines the most is in developing atmosphere, especially for those unfamiliar with Warhammer 40K.  The book drips in atmosphere, including great art, a multitude of quotes to set the mood, and a section about the setting itself.  Even small things like skill names imply setting, as a skill which in other settings is called heal, first aid, or medicine is instead called medicae in this game.  This comes into character creation a number of times, but is most highlighted by the Emperor’s Divination, where players are given a prophesy about their future with a minor game mechanic bonus.

During this session, we didn’t get into any of the deep horror mechanics like fear or sanity, but a read-through suggests that they are solid and the mechanics are typical of the genre.  We also didn’t have a psyker (the only form of “magic” in the game).  I’m a little nervous about the playability of a psyker, especially the probability of instant bad-things happening to a player, but it fits within the atmosphere and isn’t terribly different than other games in the genre like Call of Cthulhu where magic is bad—even when used for good.  Given the limited number of classes tested during the session I cannot vouch for player balance entirely, however each character in our game seemed to be well balanced to one another with no character being made of Win while other characters were ineffective.

While the game session was a lot of fun, there are a few downsides to the book which should be pointed out.  First, the game is structured in a very limiting manner.  Characters are supposed be acolytes of the Inquisition only, within a small sector of the overall Imperium of Man.  Everything about the book includes this narrow focus; while this makes the book more cohesive overall, it might turn away some players.  That doesn’t mean you have to play within the limitations, but that also means support for other play styles is not supported as is.

The low success odds for untrained skills is also an issue for me considering that starting characters get very few skills, especially since games in the investigation horror genre tend to focus heavily on social skills and research (i.e. investigation).  This can be remedied by bumping players up to a higher experience level, but as is it implies a force over finesse approach to investigation—not bad necessarily but something to watch out for.

Additionally the weapons are mostly a single template with many different descriptions.  Since the system holds tight to the d10 as the die of choice, virtually everything does—you guessed it—1d10 damage.  Sure, there are real differences between the weapons in the secondary mechanics, but there is functionally very little difference between the entry level equipment and the late game equipment except that you can’t train in that later equipment until higher experience levels.  This can be explained that a bullet, laser, or sword will all kill ya just the same if used right, but I’d like a little more variety.  Maybe something like the Brutal weapon trait in D&D 4E could be used to show varying damage given the d10 die limitation.

The last issue that I have with the book is not enough setting material to get started.  While the book does contain an extensive introductory adventure, I would have been more satisfied with 30 pages of plot hooks than a single 30 page adventure.  Additionally I could have used a few more adversaries out of the box.

From what I’ve read, most of my complaints have been remedied in books which came after this one, including greater variety in equipment, game styles, setting information, etc.  Even without these other books, most of the issues can be resolved with a little savvy-ness by the GM and players but you’re riding off the reservation to do so, and I’d like the book to have supported them out of the box.

Overall, I think the game is great.  It was fun and easy to play, especially considering none of the gamers at the table had any experience with the setting.  It fits with the dark and gritty gaming that I’m looking for right now, and includes enough atmosphere and crunch to satisfy most gamers.  I will definitely be playing this game again and will be looking into the other books in the Warhammer 40K RPG series as well.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

The book itself is well organized, but lacks an index making searching for a specific rule a little cumbersome.  This is an interesting choice by the publisher, as there’s over a dozen pages on how to choose and roll dice (which is an amusing read but unnecessary).  Character creation represents the bulk of game rules, as the book contains one of the most interesting character creation systems that I’ve come across.  One of the mantras of the game, leave the dice where they lie, comes into full effect as your entire character is a product of random tables and dice totals.  Character creation covers everything, from character attributes, to fears, and to the number and disposition of siblings.  In some ways this is liberating, especially if you are stuck in a character concept rut.  Just in case things don’t turn out the way you like them, you can spend build points to re-roll a given table to add to a totaled score.  However this also represents a weakness in the game, as there can be a massive imbalance in created characters that a more standardized game might cover.

The actual gameplay is functionally a satire of classic D&D.  Players are rewarded for playing up stereotypes and punished for breaking those archetypes.  The game design lends itself to ignoring role-playing in favor or roll-playing, where the story is just enough there to give a reason for slaying everything you encounter.  Additionally, in classic D&D fashion spellcasters are pathetically weak and melee combat is overly encouraged.  However unlike classic D&D, there is no long term reward for playing a crappy mage or cleric at low levels to get the benefit of the later power curve, instead you are relegated to near uselessness at almost all times as a spellcaster.

Exploding dice is a core mechanic both in character creation and in gameplay.  Exploding dice is where if you roll the maximum value on a given dice, you get to roll again and add it to the original.  Multiple successive high rolls can take a possible roll to exponential success.  This poses a most significant play issue, as in combat you are either doing negligible damage, or outright destroying opponents in a single blow.  There really is nothing in-between.    However spellcasters don’t get the benefit of exploding dice in most cases and are instead subjected to an opposed saving throw roll with no effective modifiers.  So your complete lack of spells is further diminished by the spells often not being successful because of a completely random roll.  Exploding dice also has an effect during a few parts of character creation, particularly skill levels, which makes for wild results which can hurt balance and playability.

One aspect of roleplaying games which appeals to me is that you playing a hero in a story.  However in Hackmaster, at best you are a nobody doing nobody things, at worst you’re dead from a random roll and it doesn’t matter anyways (surprisingly no one died in the first adventure I played, though that had more to do with completely random die rolls than tactics or strategy.

One part of the game which I really liked is the healing system.  Since clerical magic is virtually useless, the game makes up for that with a healing skill which actually heals.  While a bad roll still happens, the system allows a trained healer the ability to restore significant numbers of hit points, especially when multiple attacks dealt the damage (however you still get screwed by exploding dice damage).  Almost every game system I’ve played has had a lousy healing skill mechanic, but I actually really liked that significant healing could occur without the need for magic.

Overall, I have mixed feelings because I think that Hackmaster Basic, like D&D 4^th Edition, meets the design goals of the publisher—it has the intended feel and the system works for what it is supposed to, but I don’t think that it’s the style of game that I’m looking for.  I’ll play the game again, and might even pick it up for a one-shot game here and then, but I expect the book to become a dust collector rather than a go-to system.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

The two Batman titled comics I am reading are Batman and Batman & Robin. The main stories in both leave something to be desired, especially in Batman & Robin. While I don’t really like the plot in the comics, it’s the side-plots that I really like. The  relationships between the Batman family are what attracts me, as you now have a happier Batman and a dark Robin. Damien is hilarious, even though that is not the character’s intent. I especially loved the crossover of Robin in the Batgirl comic.

By far, my favorite comic in the line (and perhaps favorite comic overall right now) is Batgirl. I liked Stephanie Brown as Robin, and it was a shame that her stint as Robin was just used as a premise to kick off the War Games story. So it’s good to see her in a new comic as Batgirl. The comic is still dark, but at the same time is very witty and fun. In many ways, she reminds me of Spiderman, where nothing seems to go her way but she is able to push through anyways. Especially good is the relationship between Batgirl, Oracle, Batman and Robin; where she is very much treated the outcast but she manages to keep mostly upbeat about it.

I hope that when Bruce Wayne shows back up to be Batman once again, Stephanie doesn’t get sidelined again.

Sure, WoW doesn’t currently offer the ability to change your character so extremely. You can’t change character class, though there are rumors that might be coming. However the option was given to me to be able to do so and it bit my hand. While I wasn’t high enough level to recreate my original character build with a new character, it sure did crush my motivation to play.

Secondly, the graphics in the game are disappointing. While I can understand that they are trying to replicate the feel of a comic book drawing, which I can appreciate, you are setup from the beginning for a massive let-down. What I mean is that you start off in perhaps the most powerful character builder I’ve seen to date, able to customize everything to the smallest detail. The graphics in the character builder are quality 3-D modeling, so you are given the impression that this is what the game looks like. Then the game starts, and the comic graphics replace the 3-D modeled character you just got done building…

My final issue with the game is the lack of an open world feel. The game is setup with regions which are not attached to one another. One thing that I like about WoW is that you feel like you are in a “real” world (vaguely but you do) where you can wander around. However the zones were like maps in a console game, where you move from one box-canyon to the next box-canyon. The idea of using instances for the entire game, where a limited number of people could be in a given zone at a time, seems like a good idea for performance reasons (especially compared to racial cities in WoW). However in practice it doesn’t encourage the feeling of a real world environment. You almost never run into the same people twice, which doesn’t encourage groups to form or even casual friendships because its unlikely you’ll ever see a person again.

It’s not all bad though, as there are aspects of Champions which I feel are superior to other MMOs that I have played (namely WoW). Built into the game is a mission assistance mechanism similar to how the QuestHelper addon in WoW works. It’s easy to use, and helps new users get right into the action without just wandering around not knowing what to do.

I think that if the game is still going strong in a year or so, which is debatable giving the publisher’s spotty history in MMOs, I might pick it up again. Despite my above complaints, I really enjoyed playing the game when I did. Hopefully by then, I will be able to play without feeling penalized or feel like there is a real community of players around me. I’ll stick with X-Box for now, but I already miss playing an MMO…

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

As to the game rules, I found the new player races to be effective and desirable. While the races are not necessarily new, changinglings (as doppelgangers) and warforged were covered in the Monster Manual, I think that they work well and gained a bit by being printed formally as player races. The new class, Artificer, seems to be an effective and unique leader class. I like the alchemy path as an alternative to rituals, and I expect that future books will support this concept. Regarding the Dragonmark feats, I feel up and down. First, I do like that the dragonmarks diverged from the spellscarred system from the Realms, however I was left wanting for more. I don’t like the idea that anyone can get any dragonmark, and I will house-rule this so no problem really. However I hope that future supplements will include the ability to improve the dragonmarks, perhaps with a follow-up feat in the paragon and epic tiers for greater capabilities. Overall, I think the rules match the feel of Eberron and do not up the power curve significantly.

Regarding the setting material, I’m really not a fan of the “Cliff’s Notes” setting material found in the Eberron and Forgotten Realms Player’s Guides. Once the campaign setting book arrives, this material makes me feel like I got ripped off by getting largely reprinted material in two books. I understand that you can argue that players only need to buy the smaller book, but I still feel cheated somehow.

I started my first Eberron game a few weeks back, in anticipation of the 4E books. I’m disappointed that I’ve missed out on Eberron back in 3rd edition, and I really like the flavor of the setting over almost any other officially printed setting of 4E or 3E. I think that this book is a good start to the setting. I’m really hoping that more supplemental material will be printed after the player’s guide and campaign setting are out, however I’m not holding my breath. I am going to hold on to 3rd edition books however as they are a gold mine of valuable material (once again unlike the Realms…).

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Problem is, there’s people who will see this movie and will start believing that it will come true…

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

The Rules

I am a huge fan of the balance of the system. In my experience with the system, which does not yet include Epic tier, I think that this is the most balanced version of D&D, even more balanced than most RPGs out there. Every class feels useful and interesting at all levels of play, unlike the weird power curves of previous editions. However with such strong balance, there is a certain amount of similarity between many character classes. For the most part, you could take all of the classes and simplify them into 4-5 classes with more choices. Even across different character roles, the same damage, dice modifiers, etc all feel the same. But class familiarity is far more preferable to feeling useless because your class won’t become useful for another 3 levels.

Encounter design and balance is massively improved from the previous edition, though its mostly a throwback to 2nd edition. However the XP budget really is a misnomer—just because a monster is within your XP budget for the encounter does not guarantee its balanced. Stretching outside of the PC’s level up or down more than a level or two guarantees that the encounter will not scale well. You are much better off taking a monster of the PC’s level and changing them to be a minion or elite than trying to use a monster higher or lower level than the PCs.

The Setting

To date, only one setting has been released, though the next is days from release. I am a fan of the Points of Light concept, where there are large gaps of dangerous areas isolating pockets of civilized society, as a generally better setting for gaming. It helps the immersion into the setting because it does make sense that a town could disappear or monsters could be nearby for the heroes to deal with. A highly civilized world like medieval Europe just doesn’t feel like a world of monsters.

Regarding the Realms, I understand why changes were necessary even if I don’t agree with the outcome. The world was dramatically changed, supposedly with the points of light concept in mind (as well as the change in magic), but the end result doesn’t match the original purpose. The world still feels very civilized and heavily populated, just without the great history that made the Realms so attractive. Some of the most “points of light” regions were removed from the setting and replaced with more civilized regions. Finally, there have only been two products for the Realms in 4E. In the past year, or the coming year, I don’t know of any other Realms books. This is disappointing, as the first two books were really the same book (one being the Cliff’s notes version). There is still a lot of information about the world that can be provided while maintaining the overall mystery of the new setting for the Points of Light feel.

Speaking of which, the Eberron campaign setting is out soon and I have high expectations. Eberron in 3rd edition accomplished what is missing from the 4th edition Forgotten Realms—mystery yet detailed. Since Eberron is not getting the overhaul that the Realms got, I have much higher expectations for the setting to get it right in 4E.

The Future

As noted, I have high expectations for the coming campaign settings (especially the rumors of Dark Sun which I can’t put much faith in). Additionally if the coming books maintain the same quality of the current books I think 4E has a good future. My worry however is that the system might not be able to scale well over time, especially since setting material seems to be a secondary thought to rules supplement books. The problem I foresee is that since I noted that most classes have a very similar feel (outside of RP fluff), the coming expansions to the rules for new classes, etc will start to curve the power levels up in order to make the new material appealing. This has already happened with PH2, with the worst offender being the Invoker (i.e. the better wizard). This was seen in previous editions, but I think that 4E has the potential to be the worst to handle this. I hope this will not be the case, but my prediction and fear remain.

Overall, I am pleased with Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition. I will continue to purchase all books as they come out. I just hope it has the durability withstand the test of time that previous editions did.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

• Astronomy Cast – This is a great show for anyone interested in the universe around us. The cast is entertaining and does a great job at explaining very complex topics, such as dark matter and dark energy.
• Basics of the Game – Started out as a game introduction and review podcast. After GenCon 2008 the cast has mostly been interviews from GenCon. Hopefully will get back to reviews soon.
• BlizzCast – Being the most corporate podcast, it also has the highest production value for a non-video podcast. Good interviews and insider information.
• Fear the Boot – This is a great RPG advice and entertainment show. I’ve started from the beginning, so I’m back quite a ways but each episode is roughly half entertainment, then the second half is serious advice.
• Meanwhile… – A very interesting RPG podcast focusing on superhero roleplaying games. About half of the episodes are generic superhero genre information and advice, while the other half are backdoor marketing for independent games.
• Radio Free Hommlet – Focused D&D 4th Edition podcast, perhaps the best RPG podcast for specific game-system information I’ve heard. Good advice for the power-gamer.
• Secret Life of Girl Gamers – Interesting RPG podcast from the female perspective. Topics generally not found on other RPG podcasts. Might be defunct, but it’s still in my queue if it comes back.
• Skeptics Guide to the Universe & SGU 5×5 – A good podcast for skeptics. The podcast does a good job at not being cynical, rather they try to evaluate if fantastical news is valid or held to scientific standards.
• SModcast – Very funny podcast by Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier on random topics. The most entertaining podcast on this list.
• Totally Rad Show – A video podcast, reviewing games, movies, TV, and comics. Very entertaining.
• Wapcaplets – Very short (5-10 minute) gaming podcast. Irregular production schedule. Strong focus on miniature gaming and independent publisher RPGs.
• X-Play Gaming Update – A 5 minute video podcast, informing mostly about the latest video game news.