For those of you who don’t know, Torchlight is set in a fantasy world much like that found in D&D, with one notable exception: guns. Your hero is as likely to be equipped with a Flintlock Pistol or Blunderbuss as they are with a Shortbow. Add in other steampunk elements, and this is one game which just begs to be given the D&D Campaign Setting treatment.

This is (in a roundabout way) where Elves With Shotguns comes in. This is a 44-page supplement by Randomology Games which adds guns to Fourth Edition D&D, and does it extremely well indeed. In fact, if the only thing it did was “give me guns in D&D like Torchlight” and nothing else it would be worth the $8 (currently discounted to $5) asking price, but it does so much more. Don’t be fooled by the page count.

Rather than present a single set of rules for firearms, it offers three distinct “Eras” of play. and the GM has free reign to pick which one (or more) best reflect how guns work in the campaign setting.

Era 1 represents firearms in their earliest stage of development. Guns are powerful, barely controlled things which take an age to reload. These are the early flintlock, wheel-lock and matchlock pistols, muskets and blunderbusses, and in D&D terms they operate just like Magic Items. Reloading is possible during combat, but as it takes 5 Move Actions it is more likely the user will open combat by firing then switch to a melee weapon to wade into the action. If you want to run a gritty Napoleonic-era 4e D&D campaign, this is a great way to do it.

In Era 2, firearms become much more reliable and easy to reload (either one or two Move Actions) and are treated just like any other weapon, with the sole restriction that they cannot be used with any multi-attack Powers – single shot, single targets only. If you want a setting where firearms are reasonably common but don’t necessarily overshadow Bows and Crossbows, this is a good option.

When we reach Era 3, all bets are off and the firearm is king. Here with get Revolvers, Carbines and Pump-Action Shotguns, and they all have multi-attack capability. The age of the Longbow is dead.

I can see a use for all three Eras, and applaud Michel for recognising the different levels which guns can be included in a campaign. I can picture a regular D&D adventure where the heroes face off against Orcs with Era 1 Blunderbusses, a kickass Pirate campaign using Era 2 Pistols and Muskets or a full-blown Fantasy Noir setting using the Era 3 weapons and rules.

Brilliant.

And we’re only up to Page 15.

What follows is coverage of firearms-related Equipment (Ammo Boxes, Bandoliers, etc), Magic Items (different kinds of Black Powder,  firearms-specific Magic Items, Ammo and more). There are items inspired by everything from Warhammer to The Matrix. And it all works in 4e D&D. The breadth of options in this section is excellent, and it really helps show how firearms can be used to enhance and integrate into D&D.

Chapter 3 presents Character Options, and presents Alternate Class features for the major Core classes. The Fighter, for example, could replace his Shield Proficiency and Combat Challenge with the ability to use Strength (rather than DEX) for two-handed firearms and gain the Artillery Taunt At-Will Power. This isn’t just a Fighter, but a Fighter with a really big gun! Paladins can become Bullet Knights (shades of Equilibrium, perhaps?), Rangers can take the Musketeer Fighting Style, Rogues can take the Gunslinger Talent, and so on. New Feats include Double-Tap and Firearms Novice (a Firearm Multiclass Feat chain) which opens gun use to every class. I like.

The whole supplement is written is a style that perfectly combines game mechanics with flavour text and friendly sidebars that explain the rationale and available options along the way. This is clearly a labour of love. While it lacks the layout and polish of a commercial RPG house, the sheer quality and attention to detail the content shine through.

The download includes both colour and B&W printed-friendly versions of the PDF, as well as a bundle of all the images used in the text for your own personal use. Nice touch.

This is one highly recommended product.

Go get it.

Rogues always arrive first.

DAZ Studio, no postwork.

Normally when you mention Boris Vallejo thoughts immediately turn to naked (or half-naked) women in a temple. Something like this, in fact (one of mine, NSFW).

But not this time. This time I’m interested instead in the style of his Safe For Work imitators where images are brash, high-contrast in-your-face Fantasy scenes with the Hero (or villain) is Posed Dramatically in the centre. The kind of image that would grace the cover of Dragon magazine, or a dime-store fantasy novel. This kind of image, for example:

Today I’m going to show you how to make your very own Cheesy Fantasy Art. The image above, in fact.

You will need:

• A copy of DAZ Studio Pro
• The Chrome web browser
• Pixlr Express for Chrome
• Photoshop, or another graphics application which can use Photoshop Filters
• Flaming Pear’s Flood demo plug-in

DAZ Studio Pro is currently available for free and the nice people at DAZ 3D keep extending the deadline. I suggest you grab it now rather that wait and kick yourself in the future when it’s no longer free. Go on. I’ll wait.

Chrome & the Pixlr Express Extension is a great way to add light, contract and vignetting effects to an image. It’s like Instagram for your PC, but with more customization capabilities. Pixlr Express is a great tool to quickly add toning and vignettes to an image. That’s what we’re going to be using it for here.

Flood, as the name implies, adds a water plane to your scene. It’s a great way to add reflections to your renders without suffering the huge increase in render-time that usually goes with them. I like. If you don’t have access to Photoshop, you can skip this part of the tutorial.

On with the show.

Hopefully yours will look somewhat different (better, I hope) to my render above, and along the way you should pick up some ideas and a desire to create renders of your very own. That’s the plan, anyhow.

In the first part of this tutorial we’ll be setting up the initial image in DAZ Studio and finishing when we hit render. In Part Two we are going to take a close look at Postwork, that all-too-often forgotten element in creating 3D renders.

Fire up DAZ Studio Pro and you should see something like this:

Except yours probably won’t look like that, not right away. One of DAZ Studio’s (many) strengths is that the layout and appearance is highly customizable. The default layout is optimized to be newbie-friendly, whereas I favour a layout which gives me more screen space for the 3D view. If you want to try out the different styles and layouts, you can find them in Window->Workspace (which controls the views and placement of the tabs) and Window->Style (sets the overall fonts, colours, etc). I have mine set to a variation on the City Limits workspace, with the Darkside style. How you set your own screen up is, of course, entirely up to you.

I will be using the Content Library rather than Smart Content throughout as I’m more used to the Content Library way of working. If you can’t see the Content Library tab, go to Window->Tabs and activate it. Drag it someplace conventient (it will auto-stick to the sides) and you’re all set.

The Genesis Base figure loads up by default as an androgynous figure so let’s put some meat on his bones. If you can’t see him in your Scene, go to My Library->People->Genesis in the Content Library and double-click him to load him up.

Click on Genesis to make sure he’s selected then go into the Parameters tab (again, if it’s not visible, activate it in Window-Tabs) then open up the Actor list.

Here are the settings I used for my hunk of a barbarian. Feel free to experiment and build your own.

• Male->Basic Male 1.0
• Universal->Body Volume 0.8
• Universal->Bodybuilder 1.0
• Universal->Thin 1.0
• Upper Body->Torso->Chest Scale 20%
• Upper Body->Torso->Ribcage Volume 0.6
• Upper Body->Torso->Navel 1.0
• Head->Face->Mouth Width -0.4
• Head->Face->Nose Width 0.3
• Head->Face->Jaw Size 0.2

Much more Barbarianic. If Barbarianic was a word.

Next head into the Content Library and go to People->Genesis->Clothing->Journeyer Scout. With Genesis still selected, double-click the Pants, Boots and Wristguards. They should conform to the figure automatically. Clever, eh?

Now go into the Materials tab in Journeyer Scout, select the Pants (either in the 3D view, or in the Scene tab) and double-click 05_Pants (or any other material, if your prefer). Next select the Wristguards and set them to 05_Wrist, then choose a Boots texture. You should end up with an image something like this:

Now to give our Barbarian some skin texture. Click on Genesis to make sure he’s selected and go to People->Genesis->Materials and double-click Sample Jeremy – No Gen. Marvel at his lack of nipples. If that bothers you, use a different texture or cover him up :)

Now for Hair. Go to People->Genesis->Hair->Duke Hair and double-click it. Choose a Material to set the colour how you want.

Go into People->Genesis->Poses and choose a suitable pose (the one I used is in Basic Male) and move the camera until you find a pleasing position using the camera controls to the top-right of the 3D View.  While you’re there, click the topmost button (the one which looks like a mini-menu) to open up a mini-menu and change the background colour to black. You’ll see why in a mo’.

Double-click Genesis’ Head and to into the Parameter tab to set an expression. I used Angry 1.0 and Mouth Open Wide 0.7.

Now is a good time to do a quick test render. In the top menu, go to Render->Render Settings and set the render size to Square, 800×800 pixels. Press CTRL-R, and bask in your own awesomeness.

The default lighting in DAZ Studio is designed for preview use only, so let’s make it better. In the top menu, go to Create->New Distant Light and in the Parameters tab set the Light Intensity to 25%. This is going to be our overall fill light which puts a small amount of light into the shadows to give them detail. Without it, out shadows would be completely black.

Now add a Spolight by going to Create->New Spotlight. With that selected (use the Scene tab to select it, if necessary) use the Parameters tad to set the following:

• General->X Translate: -100
• General-> Y Translate: 250
• General-> X Rotate: -90
• General->Z Rotate: 45
• Shadow->Shadow Type: Deep Shadow Mat
• Shadow->Shadow Softness: 50%
• Light->Intensity: 75%
• Light->Spread Angle: 90

This should set the light to cast on the figure from above with pleasing (but not too deep) shadows.

Now hit render, and you should be an improvement in the overall appearance of the scene, all with just two lights.

Go into the Render Settings, raise the Render size to 1280×1280, and Render one last time. Save the image in .png format. This will export it with a transparent background. We set the background to black earlier to ensure there will be no “glowing” pixels around the edge. This is a Golden Rule – if you are going to add a background in another application (as we will do here), always render it with a black background in DAZ Studio and save it as a .png file. It saves no end of headaches later.

Black background becomes transparent, but with nice crisp edges. See?

And we’re done in DAZ Studio. Next time, we will use Photoshop to add a background and some water, then load the image into Pixlr Express for some final postwork and tune-up.

Till then!

And he’s wielding a sword.

I so want this guy to be my first official D&D Next character. Elephant Fighter ftw!

Technopedia defines playtesting as:

Playtesting is a method of quality control that takes place at many points during the video game design process. A selected group of users play unfinished versions of a game to work out flaws in gameplay, level design and other basic elements, as well as to discover and resolve bugs and glitches. In addition, the process mainly involves clarifying the vague points, adding fun elements or reducing boredom, balancing the victory situations, and so on.

When D&D Next launches, I expect blogs, forums and Twitter to erupt with people complaining that “this doesn’t work”, “it’s all broken”, “bring back 3rd Edition”, “5e sucks”, etc. Every single one of these people are entirely missing the point of playtesting. The objective is to find out what does and doesn’t work, not to give something for the interwebs to gripe about. Don’t be That Guy.

Playtesting is for the benefit of the designers

It’s not about you, dude. It’s about the game. The goal is to improve the game by getting as many eyeballs (see Linus’ Law) as possible on the rules so that the vast majority of issues are fixed ahead of time. This means actually playing the game rather than merely reading it (though that can be quite helpful too). All too often RPG rules can read just fine, but when it comes to playing the game there’s too much room for misinterpretation or confusion. If something isn’t clear or you think may be improved by wording it differently, say so through the correct channels.

One common goal of playtesting is to fine-tune the user experience. In a FPS computer game that may mean refining the heads-up display so that important information is clearly visible and in your eye-line at all times. In pencil-and-paper RPGs it’s more nebulous, but no less important. Is the character sheet easy to understand? Do the rules permit you to participate in every session or round of combat? Are you having fun or feeling frustrated, and if so, why?

Feeding back your positive user-experience is (I’m sure) very rewarding for the game designers to hear, because it means they’re doing something right – but it’s the negative user-experience they will want to hear about, even if it’ll give them headaches. These are the elements which need sorting, and that’s why you’re playtesting in the first place.

You help them by giving them more headaches. Trust me. They will thank you for it in the end.

Playtesting usually has a fixed purpose

Most (but not all) playtests come with a set of instructions or a request of which features the designers want to see if you can break. I suspect the Open Playtest for D&D Next will be no different (though I have no specific knowledge, and could be wrong).

It could be as simple as “run through this adventure and tell us what problems you had”, or as specific as “kill this roomful of goblins 20 times. Did combat speed up as you became familiar with the rules and what was the average time your last five combats lasted?”. Again, I dunno, but that’s how I would do it (disclaimer: I’m a business analyst. Testing things is what I do. I know this stuff).

Sometimes it is to the benefit of the designers not to state their purpose. This eliminates the problem where actually stating the goal causes the problem itself. For example, if the designers asked “Did the fight with the Ogre take too long?” they are more likely to get “Yes” replies than if they say nothing, but listen out for comments about the length of the Ogre fight. Asking the question sets a degree of anticipation in the players’ mind, which then increases the likelihood of the perceived issue occurring. Let’s call it Quantum Playtesting, or something.

The initial Open Playtest will contain pre-generated characters, and for good reason. This means every single playtesting group will be on exactly the same page, both literally and figuratively. Your Rogue will be the same as everyone else’s so if there’s a problem with a certain ability or feature, it should be widely reported. A single group having an issue may well just be a blip on the radar or a misreading of the rules, but if 500 groups find the same thing is a problem, that’s a whole different kettle of orcs.

As the playtest continues, I expect to see playtests of higher levels, character generation and all of the various subsystems which make up D&D Next. Fingers crossed, Open Playtesting will carry on after launch for future books and modules. That depends on you, willing playtester, and the success (or failure) of the Open Playtest itself.

Playtesting only works if you provide feedback through the established channels

The most important aspect of Playtesting is feedback, and this has to be through the communication channels stated by Wizards of The Coast. Putting your opinions and thoughts about the game on your blog, Twitter and forums is one thing, but before you do that PLEASE feed it back to the Coastal Wizards in the format they ask.

I doubt the designers have time to spend their days surfing the net looking for comments about D&D Next wherever they may be. If you are going to play by the rules, play by the rules. That will make the designers’ job so much easier, and guarantee that your feedback will be heard. Putting it up on your blog won’t.

Playtesting will make the game better, and that is to everyone’s benefit

If you care about D&D, regardless of Edition, play style or preference, please take part in the D&D Next Open Playtest and help to make it a game to be proud of.

This is your chance to shape the future of the hobby as a whole. Why not participate, and be a part of gaming history?

Thanks for listening.

It should also be racist, violent, malevolent, and threatening if you want it to be and it fits the tone of your campaign and maturity of the people you game with. After all, if your villains are “Evil” but all they do is wear dark clothing and look different to the Good Guy Races, isn’t that just being Racist (not to mention Gothist, if there’s such a thing) by another name?

And if you don’t want it to be, no. It’s your game, when all is said and done.

The role-playing hobby is somewhat unique in that it provides a “safe” environment in which to explore issues such as racism, sexism, slavery and other such evils that exist in the real world. We can look at such things and let our Heroic PC personas make a stand for Good where in our daily lives all too often we look the other way.

Perhaps just a little of that Heroic might just rub off too. Who knows?

Ok, so should the players be sexist? The Gamer Code of Conduct (written or unwritten) should insist that players should be polite around the table at all times, and that includes not being a jerk about the opposite sex. That’s not the same as what goes on in the Theatre of The Mind. Your Barbarian might well be leering at the Barmaid (are we still allowed to call them Tavern Wenches now? Ah crap), because he’s from a culture where Male Dominance Rules (and he’s never seen a women who washes her hair before), but that doesn’t mean the player is “being sexist”. He’s playing his character, who is. That’s a part of what role-playing is all about – being someone who isn’t you, for just a while.

Oh course, playing a Barbarian who breaks that particular stereotype is even cooler, but that’s up to the player, and I don’t think that’s a decision which should be forced upon us by Political  Correctness. I don’t know about you, but my Medieval Fantasy settings aren’t democratically elected Utopias where everyone is born equal and free regardless of race, sex, colour or creed. And nor would I want them to be.

What of D&D art? Should that be sexist?

Hmmmm. Here’s where I turn the fire hose on myself. Good thing I brought a towel.

All too often, art is labelled “sexist” because it shows a large amount of bare female flesh. To me (a white male, and therefore possessing no opinion worth a damn), that’s not sexist  at all. That’s other people being prudish, and I had hoped such Victorian values died out with…. well, with the Victorians.

That being said, I do wish that fantasy art depicted women wearing clothing that at least partially resembled their male counterparts. Women in plate armour should not wear nothing but panties from the waist down!

That’s not sexist. It’s silly.

Of course, one person’s definition of sexist might not be the same as another’s, and that’s a part of the problem. Sexism means different things to different people, in different cultures, in different places. Reconciling all of that too often legitimizes the lowest common denominator, and that’s a shame. The person with the strictest views isn’t necessarily the one who is the most right.

Sexism is demeaning. It is depowering. It is ridiculing and enforcing the stereotype that a woman is weaker than a man, and belongs in the home with the children. That’s sexist, and wrong, and I certainly wouldn’t advocate D&D art ever showing a woman in a lesser position to anyone.

The age of the Damsel in Distress is dead, and long may it Rest in Peace.

Thanks for listening.

Thanks to for Joe Schindehette opening the thorny topic of Sexism in Fantasy. I look forward to hearing your views.

Daz Studio, no postwork.

The latest version of the best male render character in the whole world was released last week, and I’ve been buried in DAZ Studio getting to know how he renders even since. Here’s to you, Michael 5.

And hot darn, he’s great. Just look at those shoulders. Michael 4 (the previous figure) was good, but this new figure just leaves him in the dust. Unlike number 4, Mickey 5 isn’t a stand-alone figure but a morph for the Genesis figure, meaning that he mixes with all of the morphs you already have (including those that come with Genesis Base, which comes with the free DAZ Studio package) for create a pretty much infinite variety of body and face shapes. If that’s not enough, add the Evolution and Ethnic morphs and be prepared to lose months of your life creating your own characters.

As with Victoria 5, Michael 5 comes with a range of morphs; there’s a default shape (shown above), a Hero morph more proportioned for fantasy renders (below) and a Smooth morph (which I’ve not tested yet). There’s also Average Joe and Tough Guy face morphs, and a “bulge” morph (finally!) to make clothes fit more realistically below the waist. Goodbye Ken Doll renders, at last.

Red.

Michael 5 also comes with an Elite-class texture called (confusingly) Philip. Maybe that’s his middle name, of something. As well as the clean-shaven texture, it includes a choice of racial hair including goatee and moustache. Quite simply, it’s the best male texture I have seen, and has instantly become my go-to choice for rendering males.

No I don't know why either

Along with the Michael 5 figure/morph, the nice people at DAZ 3D have also released a load of new content to support him, and as this is Genesis that means it all automatically fits your female (and monstrous!) characters too. Which is nice, even if not all of it is…  appropriate.

Not Michael 5, but wearing his clothes

Where Michael 5 shines is in Fantasy renders. This is a figure designed for sticking in fantasy garb. Want proof? How about this.

Ranger

Or this…..

Mage-Slayer

Or this…

Warrior

I would say he is rather bloody good.

Grab a copy of DAZ Studio then go get him. You won’t regret it.

PS Tutorial coming on Monday Soon!

The Drowathon is a free event for new and existing players to Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition. Its is being run on Saturday 12th May at Mondo Comico on Heathcoat Street in Nottingham. Games are due to start by 11am and will run throughout the day with a view to finishing by 4pm so we can adjourn to the nearby Pitcher and Piano to have some food and drink.

Full information and details, right here.

Time to get your Drow on!

Watch this space!