Asmor's Geek Blog

KindleCounter is my new Magic life counter for the Kindle. I tried it out for the first time  at the Scars of Mirrodin prerelease Friday night, and it worked great! The Kindle is a vastly superior platform for this sort of application over a phone because of the larger display and the fact that there are no worries about running out the battery.

I give a rundown of it in the video. Sorry for the blurriness.

Though it can be used on any device, it’s really designed for the kindle. It’s driven by the keyboard. The top row deals damage and gives poison counter, the second row gives life and removes poison counters. I tried to lay it out logically.

If you do want to try it on a computer, +1 life for the opponent is mapped to backspace (that’s the first key on the right of the second row on the Kindle).

I’d also like to point out that Thundermaster works great on the Kindle as well.

4th edition’s suggestions for magic item distribution has never been entirely satisfactory to me. Even as a player, I hate digging around to find enough things to fill out a wish list.

A lot of people also don’t care for the idea of the PCs always finding exactly what they want. There are various arguments for it, from matters of verisimilitude to those who enjoy the unexpected.

While reading through the new Essentials Rules Compendium on the train today, I had an epiphany.

First, a brief tangent. Schrödinger’s Gun is not my cat’s firearm, but rather the idea that until you, the DM, describe something to the players, the exact details can be changed without them ever knowing. Joe guesses that the kindly baron is really the BBEG as soon as he’s introduced? Change it!

So now we can apply the idea of Schrödinger’s gun to magic items. 4e assumes that PCs can figure out most magic items after spending a few minutes with them… Scratch that! From now on, the PCs simply get “some armor,” “a weapon,” or “some bracers.”

Then you give them a coupon with a slot, rarity and a level. The bearer of the coupon may turn it into any item for that slot, at that level or lower and that rarity or lower.

In game terms, when the PC finally decides what the item is, they’ve ‘identified’ it.

This adds some randomness back into the process, since the PCs have no control over what slot the item is for. It also adds some more competition for items. No longer does the set of plate armor go straight to the fighter. Rather, everyone has an interest in the generic, unidentified armor that was just found.

For players, it also gives them a lot more direction. Having to find an item of a particular level can be daunting, given all the choices. It’s much easier to pick something out with the slot so constrained.

Here are some tables you can roll on to determine type and rarity.

I’ve just completed work on Thundermaster, my intelligent Thunderstone randomizer.

Thundermaster will ensure all the tools you need to defeat the monsters in the dungeon and get the most out of your heroes are always present. Never again must you suffer through an agonizingly slow game just because of bad luck in randomization.

Thundermaster can be used offline (just save the page, making sure to save it as a “Web page, complete”) and is also designed to be easily usable on any touch screen phone. Thundermaster has been tested and works in the latest versions of Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera (on Windows, though it shouldn’t matter). It also mostly works in Internet Explorer 8, although there are occasional hiccups.

What are you waiting for? Try Thundermaster now!

D&D’s combat is great for dramatic fights, but it can be a bit of a drag when you keep pulling it out every time the PCs encounter a random brigand or bear. It can also be quite disruptive if for example a PC unexpectedly provokes a guard, and can lead to an inordinate amount of time being wasted on something of little consequence.

Enter skirmishes. Skirmishes are abstract combat. PCs roll initiative, use powers, and ultimately take damage in the form of healing surges.

Important note: Skirmishes have a threshold stat. When a player rolls damage, they gain a hit for every full multiple of the skirmish’s threshold which they beat. For example, if the threshold is 12 and the player rolls at least 12 damage, they’ll score one hit. If they roll at least 24, they’d instead score 2 hits, etc. Each role allows you to spend hits to do certain things.

To resolve a skirmish,

1. Take note of the skirmish’s stats, which are based on its level. Feel free to tweak the stats to suit the particular skirmish. For example, if the skirmish involves goblins, you might decrease the skirmish’s will defense and increase its reflex.
2. Calculate the starting surge damage. This is the initial surge damage from the table times the number of players. For example, if the initial surge damage is 2 and there are 5 players, the surge damage starts at 10.
3. Each player rolls initiative. The DM rolls initiative for the skirmish. Players act in initiative order, but may delay their turn as normal.
4. On a player’s turn, he uses one of his attack powers. If the player uses a daily power, he gets a +2 bonus on the attack roll. If the power affects multiple targets, the player only makes one attack roll, but gets a +5/tier bonus to damage. If they hit, apply the following effects based on the character’s role.
   • Controller: The skirmish gets -2 to all defenses during the next PC’s turn. Controllers may spend hits as follows.
     • 1 hit: Extend the duration of the defense penalty one additional PC’s turn.
     • 2 hits: Reduce surge damage by 1.
   • Leader: A character of your choice gains a +5/tier bonus to their next damage roll. Leaders may spend hits as follows.
     • 1 hit: A character of your choice gains a +5/tier bonus to their next damage roll. (this bonus stacks)
     • 3 hits: reduce surge damage by 2.
   • Defender: The defender may lose a healing surge to reduce surge damage by 1. Defenders may spend hits as follows.
     • 1 hit: The defender may lose a healing surge to reduce surge damage by 1.
     • 2 hits: Reduce surge damage by 1.
   • Striker: Reduce surge damage by 1. Strikers may spend hits as follows.
     • 1 hit: Reduce surge damage by 1.
     • 2 hits: Reduce surge damage by 3.
5. On the skirmish’s turn, double the current surge damage.
6. After everyone’s had a turn, distribute the surge damage among players as equally as possible. For example, if there are 5 PCs and 7 surge damage, 2 PCs must take 2 surge damage and the other 3 PCs must each take 1 surge damage. Players decide amongst themselves who gets the larger shares. For each point of surge damage, the PC loses a healing surge. If the PC has no more healing surges left, he takes damage equal to his surge value for each point of surge damage he couldn’t pay.
7. In the unlikely event that the PCs are all knocked unconscious, they have been defeated. Otherwise, they’re victorious. Their victory takes whatever form is appropriate, e.g. quelling a rebellion, slaughtering demons, or chasing off a pack of wolves. Just remember, this is meant to be a abstract an actual battle, and the story should follow exactly as if you’d played through the battle normally.

Skirmish statistics by level

Please note that I haven’t playtested this, and in particular the numbers probably need tweaking (especially the initial surge damage and threshold).