-
Affilliation
I’ve never joined a social-networking site until “D&D: Tiny Adventures”
I’ve never been one to get into these “social-network website” things. Every time someone asks to add me to their friends list, I say I don’t have an account, and I get a look of confusion. I have a ton of respect for the social-web thing, I think it’s a great platform and still has a lot of untapped potential, but I just never found a compelling enough reason to get into the bandwagon.
Until I heard abut Dungeons & Dragons: Tiny Adventures (D&D:TA).
I honestly don’t remember where I first read about it, but as I scoured the internets for a regular dose of RPG news, I slowly noticed the words “Facebook” and “D&D” increasingly being mentioned together. I also noticed that the few comments I ran into weren’t all scathing remarks. They say the servers are often down, but then that might indicate that it’s getting more popular than they expected.
So, I thought it might be worth a closer look.
Here’s the official announcement from WotC’s VP of Digital Gaming Randy Buehler (Digital Insider #3):
Yesterday we launched a Facebook Application called Dungeons & Dragons: Tiny Adventures (note: you must be pre-logged in to Facebook). It’s basically a free game that we’re giving away to Facebook users in an effort to draw more attention to D&D in general and to the D&D Insider free trial in particular. The game lets you choose a character and then send that character off on adventures. You can just check in on your character periodically and read updates (I think of them as postcards from the road) or you can spend lots of time fiddling with potions and inventory. In addition, you and your friends can buff and heal each other so it pays off to get all your friends to play too. We’re pretty happy with it – I think it’s a fun diversion for hard-core D&D players and it’s also a fun introduction for newbies.
…
“‘… choose a character, send on adventures, check periodically, friends can buff and heal…’ OK, interesting enough. I’ve never played real tabletop D&D before, so what the hey?! I’ll give it a shot!”
And so I was finally convinced to join a social-network and see for myself what all the fuss was about.
Generally speaking, Randy Buehler’s description above already describes the experience very well. You pick a pre-made character based on the current D&D 4th Edition Classes and Races, then choose “adventures” (missions) to send your character to. Adventures are composed of several story points called “updates”, which occurs every few minutes (usually 10 minutes) from the time you start the Adventure.
At each Update, your character gets into a situation which requires a skill-check on your stats. For example, your character sees something shiny at the top of a mountain. D&D:TA will make a strength check (the game will roll your dice for you) to see if you can successfully climb the mountain, and the narrative text will reflect the results accordingly. If you passed the skill-check, you might find that the shiny object is an item you can equip, if you fail, you might fall and take some damage. Either way, you get eXperience Points to move your character closer to leveling-up, though you obviously get more XP on successful skill-checks. Although you can fail an Adventure, you don’t really die, and you character will regain HP over time to try for another Adventure.
If you don’t leave your character on her own, you can actually change re-equip her based on what she has or what she’s found so far, or you can make her drink potions (that have to be equipped prior to the Adventure) to heal or buff her-up in-between Updates.
Supposedly, your Facebook friends can help you out by healing you or giving you buffs, but I haven’t gotten around to trying this feature yet. I also wanted to provide some screenshots, but I can’t:
Due to events beyond our control, Dungeons & Dragons: Tiny Adventures will be down until 12 pm PST, Monday August 25. We expect that even when we are able to restore the application to working order that we will have lost some of our data in the process. While we are working hard to prevent this it is likely that we will have to roll back to our stored data from Friday, August 22nd. Thank you for your patience.
And so, after several Adventures (some successful, some failed) and reaching level 3, the adventures of Trifle, my Eldarin Wizard, came to a halt.
To prevent you from being disillusioned by what D&D:TA can do during each Adventure, you can’t really make choices other than in the equipment and timing of drinking potions between Updates. Also, you can’t really cast Spells or use Skills, it’s really just the game rolling dice against your character’s stats to determine the outcome of an event. C’mon people, it’s a Facebook app! You weren’t expecting a full-fledged D&D game, were you?! (That’s D&D Insider.)
Regardless, from the little time I’ve had in trying it out, it’s a fun time-waster and (more importantly) it appears to do what it was set out to do. As someone who doesn’t play tabletop D&D, this little app gave me a small, casual slice of the experience (which could perhaps be enough to interest others in the hobby).
I think Greywulf’s post about Dungeons & Dragons: Tiny Adventures describes what slice of D&D is captured by this little app.
If any of this managed to spark your interest, log-in to your Facebook account and send your character off to a Dungeons & Dragons: Tiny Adventure! (assuming the server isn’t down)
— 2008.08/26 18:08 update —
Server’s back up! Trifle was reset to… nothing (I didn’t have an account yet last Aug22), so I’ll have to build him up again.
Unfortunately, Trifle’s rolling pretty bad right now. ;_;
Tags: D&D, opinionNomad D&D Log, 2008.08/15
I originally posted these last Wednesday, but my connection must’ve screwed-up and I didn’t have time to to check that the post was a dud.
So, I’m re-posting it now, with some additional stuff.
D&D News
- GSL, SRD, Stealth, New Rituals, and DRAGON Editorials - oh my! - Aside from the announcement on the GSL/SRD, There are a bunch of D&D related stuff going on as well. Jonathan from The Core Mechanic mentions some of these. The one I would like to give special note is…
- Ritually Speaking - This is an article by Peter Schaefer for Dragon Magazine #366. Basically, it’s a downloadable (for now) list of 33 additional 4E rituals. As The Core Mechanic’s Jonathan pointed out, “considering the PHB only contained 49 Rituals, this is a 67% increase in the total number of rituals in the game. So, grab this quick before they make you pay for it.“
- Why People Hate Fourth Edition: “I think I’ve worked it out. D&D4 is New Star Wars.” - This is actually a very insightful analogy.
- 4e “In The Trenches” - From the source: “As most of the initial hype vs furor wars have settled down there’s some good “what 4e is” information starting to emerge out there. Ones I’ve found the most helpful are…”
- 0 and 1, or The Problem With RPG Combat - Hmmm, I never considered this that way. His point is a good one to remember regardless of the game you’re trying to design.
- A Noobian Guide to 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons - A great piece. Given that I’m a noob myself, the perspective reflects my own more closely.
- Playtesting 4th Edition: An Essay by Justin Alexander
Other D&D Related
- Download the New 4e D&D PHB Index! - This is fan made.
- The Value of Dungeons and Dragons - This got me thinking… what IS the value of the stuff I spend money on? I’ll probably try to make a similar valuation on my other hobbies.
RPG Related
- How To Build a World: The Basics - Applies to a lot of disciplines. More importantly, it’s a fun excersise which could help you tap in the creative juices you left in the fridge of your youth.
- Pathfinder RPG Beta PDF Available (Free) - I’m a sucker for free rulesets.
WotC to Revise 4th Ed GSL and SRD in the Very Near Future
The news is all over RPG Bloggers Network.
Here’s the official word from Linae Foster, D&D Licensing Manager:
Tags: D&D“We recognize the important role third party publishing support plays in the success of the 4th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons. We have listened to the community and our valued colleagues and have taken their concerns and recommendations to heart. Our commitment to the health of the industry and hobby gaming lifestyle is reflected in the revisions to the Game System License.”
Nomad Gaming Log, 2008.07/07
BTW, in case the cave you’ve been living in doesn’t have TV/internet/print news access, Blizzard has officially announced Diablo III. I’ve never been a Diablo fan (I respect the game, but I guess it just wasn’t my thing at the time), but this one might pique my interest.
Video Game News
- Blizzard Authenticator for WoW accounts
- Warcraft Operator Dominates Chinese Supercomputing List
- First “DC Universe Online” Art Unveiled - I didn’t even know this was being developed.
- Inside Neopets Creators’ Ambitious New MMO
- Wii Fit: 64% of Japanese gamers already giving up
Gaming
- Critical Hits has great coverage of Origins last weekend. Don’t forget to checkout the Origins Awards winners.
- D&D 4E Player’s Handbook 2 is currently planned for a March 2009 release according to WotC’s D&D 2009 Products Listing
- Has Open Gaming Been a Success? (opinion)
Board Games
- Days of Wonder will new exclusively distribute with Alliance Game Distributors and Diamond Comic Distributors in the Americas and Asia
- ‘Halo Board Game’ in September
- Vikings Played Board Games in Death. No Seriously.
Comics/Animation
- Kodansha Heading Stateside
- Wonder Woman Direct-to-DVD in 2009
- Warren Ellis Writing G.I. Joe Cartoon!
- Lawrence Kasdan Adapting ‘Robotech’ - <sigh> I guess the “Macross” brand will remain in Japan. Then again, if this movie sucks, I’ll be glad they didn’t use the Macross name.
Other Geek Stuff
- Kellogg’s, LEGO team up to train kids to choke - For LEGO lovin’ adults, however, this is way cool! (assuming THEY don’t mix it up with real LEGO)
- USC Lab Creates 3-D Holographic Displays, Brings TIE Fighters to Life
- Dabels to Adapt ‘Wheel of Time’
Privateer Press Announces Price Increase
Privateer Press (of Warmachine and Hordes miniatures fame) made an announcement regarding a price increase. Here’s an excerpt from their announcement:
… You’ll be seeing some amazing and innovative ways that we’re engineering the models in the future to decrease metal usage. While these measures have mitigated the increased price of metal and have allowed us to stave off adjusting prices for a while, these efforts are unable to completely neutralize rising costs. In order to continue the production of certain items, we must adjust their MSRP to reflect the material’s current price, which constitutes the largest portion of their manufacturing cost. …
They even have a chart that shows how the cost of tin has been rising the past few years. Nobody likes rising prices, but the reality is, when your cost of production rises, there’s a limit to how you can control costs and still sell your goods for the same value.
Good thing I managed to buy a good stock of figs months ago.
Source: Privateer Press (posted June 20, 2008)
Tags: WarmachineWhat’s your inner D&D character?
Yet another D&D survey (What’s your inner D&D character?). So, what am I now according to this?
After analyzing your answers with state-of-the-art medieval fantastic psychology profiling tools, Dungeon Mastering is confident that your inner D&D character is a Chaotic Good Elf Fighter!
This is the 2nd time I’ve been classed as a “Chaotic Good Fighter”, the only difference being that in this test I’m an Elf.
Hmmm… maybe it’s a sign…
Tags: D&D, surveyDungeons & Dragons 4th Edition GSL and SRD Released
WotC has released the Game System License and System Reference Document for D&D 4E. The documents (and any future revisions) can be found (and downloaded) in the Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition Game System License website.
Here’s a “layman’s version” from ENWorld. There’s also an “unofficial GSL FAQ” in ENWorld, but it’s tough to link to (it was post on June19, 2008).
Source: GamingReport.com
Tags: D&D, has downloadsNomad Gaming Log 2008.06/12
Happy Independence Day, Philippines!
To slowly ease out on the D&D wagon, today’s collection are geek and gaming related.
Somewhat Recent Gaming News
- Magic: The Gathering Duel Decks for November - Unlike the new MtG Theme Decks, this one will be complete 60 card decks. Probably like the Elves vs Goblins thing they released a while back.
- Alpha Point: Designing the HeroClix Alpha Rules System
- Cthulhu Dice Now Unlimited!
- The Gamer Dome: Community Game Design Projects
- Rubik’s Cube Algorithm Cut Again, Down To 23 Moves
Gaming Features
Movies/TV/Animation
- Grayskull: Masters of the Universe Script Review - Hmmm. Ok, it could work. I just hope they don’t start thinking that a hip-n-edgy “My Little Pony” would work too.
- Interview: Dave Gibbons talks Watchmen and more…
- Pinoy animators form ‘holy alliance’
- HBO turns ‘Fire’ into fantasy series
- 10 year old cartoonist, Alexa Kitchen, signs with Hyperion/Disney
Misc. Geek Stuff
- Podcast Interview with H.P. Lovecraft Scholar, S.T. Joshi
- 7 Super Heroes We Can Live Without
- McFarlane, Portacio on ‘Spawn’ - Haven’t heard about anything from those guys in a while. I wonder how Whilce’s art style would look on Spawn?
