Online Comics!!!

From the fine folks at DC Comics and Ugo.com, you can now read the first 5 issues of 52 online!

Monster Manual IV - a Review

The first thing you'll notice about the newest offering of monsters from WOTC is that a change in formats. The stats have now been consolidated in a stats block that has smaller print, making it a bit harder to read, however that means you'll have to spend a bit more time preparing - perhaps by using a Combat Sheet, such as you can find here. The other thing you'll notice is that each monster now takes up 2 pages instead of the one page standard the previous MM's used. That translates into less monsters, but a lot more information on each one - things like ecology of the monsters, suggested treasures and lairs, and entries for the Eberron and Forgotten Realms campaign. The other new addition isn't really new to anyone who's been reading the 'Ecology of ____" articles in Dragon Magazine lately - a table giving the applicable Knowledge Skill and what information the players can glean about the monsters from the Knowledge Check Roll. I like this new development, it prevents veteran players from going 'oh, that's a mind flayer, my character will use such-and-such" - it forces them to play the characters as though they'd never met that monster before. Of course, the corollary is that the party will need at least one character with the necessary Knowledge Skill, actually a couple, since some monsters use the Knowledge(dungeoneering) roll, while others use Knowledge(the Planes) or Knowledge (Arcane).

As for the monsters themselves, they generally tend towards the CR 4-9 level, the highest is the Concordant Killer at CR 19. One new feature is that a lot of the monsters are actually examples from previous races, for instance, under Orcs we have the Orc Berserker (Barbarian 4), War Howler ( Barbarian 2/Bard 2), Orc Battle Priest (Cleric 1), and Orc Plague Speaker (male unholy scion Cleric 5), which leads me to my one complaint about some of these additions - some of them are dependant on your owning another book, for example the Unholy Scion is a template found in Heroes of Horror. Another example is the Drow Elves entry - of the 4 entries in MM4, 2 of them use classes found in The Complete Adventurer. Nonetheless, it's nice to have something you can quickly use in place of the generic Orc/Drow/Ogre etc. Another large entry is found under the heading of Spawn of Tiamat - basically a variety of monsters linked to the chromatic dragons, but not necessarily looking like dragons, which would be handy if you wanted to run a campaign using Tiamat as the protagonist.

Overall, this is a good buy - rather than a slew of new monsters, some if not most of which you'll never use, WOTC has opted to present a lesser quantity of entries, but of a better quality and presented so that you'll have little difficulty fitting them into your campaign setting.

Geek Toy of the Week

Technically, I suppose, this is a miniature rather than a toy. Although, truth be told, at 11 inches across and 8 deep at the base, and at 24 inches in height, miniature is kind of an inadequate term to describe something that's the equivalent of a 10 story building sitting on your game table. Granted, at $259.99, this isn't going to be something you'll just casually buy, that's probably why they're only making 500 of them, but still - isn't the 'oh sh*t!' look on the players' faces worth it?

Leeroy Jenkins

Let's face it - every party has one. And they're the DM's favourite...

For Those With Actual Lives of Their Own...

DC comics has been kind enough to post on their website a series of chapters outlining the History of the DC Universe. A nice move, and a prudent one, given the complaints I've seen on various message boards. That's the problem that comic book reality and actual reality share: it's messy. The reasons for the messiness are different, of course - actual reality is the one in which people die and don't come back, sometimes at phenomenal rates. The same cannot be said for comic book reality.

The need for a review of the history of the DCU arises from the most recent universe-altering event, referred to as the "Infinite Crisis". A direct sequel to 1985's "Crisis on Infinite Earths", it seems to be a belated attempt to tidy up the last unfortunate discontinuities created by the interim shakeups, "Armageddon 2001" and "Zero Hour".
In short, the DCU is now a slightly friendlier place, with a less grim Batman, and a more 'human' Superman.

One of the things that companies like DC do with certain characters who are around for a long time is 'reboot' them, with either a new character or a revised history, and this is currently the case with Wonder Woman and my obvious favourite, The Flash. Both have new characters filling their predecessor's shoes, both are well written and drawn, and the new Flash (number 4, Bart Allen, the grandson of the 2nd Flash, Barry Allen) seems a logical successor.

The same reboot is being attempted with Blue Beetle, who is now a Hispanic teenager in mystical body armour. This differs from the acrobatic inventor, Ted Kord (Murdered just prior to IC, a move that was quite surprising, if not shocking), the second BB, and Dan Garrett, the first BB from the 1940's (who had his own radio show, believe it or not). So far, this has proven disappointing - just my opinion, but I've never wanted to slap a comic book character before. Whine, whine whine. Just my opinion, of course.

The new Atom, an Asian-American, is in contrast very entertaining - witty and exceptionally well drawn. You really get the sense that the character is learning the ropes, whatever those may be when your power consists of shrinking to microscopic size.

There are other new elements, such as the much-ballyhooed Batwoman, but overall, I am rather satisfied with the 'new' DCU.

Why am I sharing these no doubt incredibly interesting insights? Well, to point folks toward the link above for one. My other reason is that I've been debating for some time on whether or not I should throw some thoughts down on the history of the DCU, since I've grown up 'living' there, and I've decided that I will, with this post as an introductory foray. Given the fairly wide latitude on this blog, and my desire to 'write what I know', I'm thinking it'll be appropriate and fun.

Watch this space, it'll be coming at you soon, whether you like it or not.
But I hope you do.

Be Seeing You.

One Good Motivation Deserves Another

As a followup to my previous post I thought to follow up with a link to Star Trek Inspirational Posters!

If You Want to Attend Comic-Con 2007

You'd better get down to San Diego quick - the line-up's already started.

Geek Video of the Week #2

For those of you in a nostalgic frame of mind:

Opening Theme to Rocket Robin Hood

Geek Toy of the Week #2

From the fine folks at
Crystal Caste comes one of the coolest things I've seen lately - a treasure chest with skull handles and a gargoyle hinge that comes with a complete set of dice. Truly you will be the envy of the other players at the table when you haul this sucker out,

His Majesty's Dragon - A Book Review

A great joy for any bibliophile is when they discover a new author and such is the case with Naomi Novik's 'His Majesty's Dragon'. This book combines a Napoleonic Era setting with the addition of dragons as a naturally occurring species - there's no magic here. The story begins when HMS Reliant captures a French ship carrying a dragon's egg on the verge of hatching. I won't go too much into the plotline from there, save to say that that Novik does an excellent job of creating thrilling battle scenes a la Patrick O'Brien, adding the extra dimension of aerial combat. She also fleshes out the background well, and creates compelling characters, especially the draconic ones. All in all, an excellent read - one I highly recommend, and I look forward to collecting the other books in the series.

Bonus Video

Following up on Flash's post I thought this video clip seemed appropriate:

Stephen Colbert on Dungeons and Dragons

Video of the Week

Ryan VS Brandon