Newsgroup: it.hobby.giochi.gdr.dnd
Titolo: INCREDIBLE NEWS!

Andate su
http://www.enworld.org/
ci sono delle notizie incredibili!
Oppure...
scendete un po' piu' giu' che le copio incollo.
Pero' prima sedetevi comodi e rilassatevi.
Se siete troppo nervosi potreste restarci secchi!
March 32, 2002
WotC Financial Woes Result in D&D Name Change: Wizards of the Coast business
manager Antony Valtorro has passed along some stunning and sad news:
It's no secret that WotC has suffered some hard financial times over the
past couple of years. Each time circumstances force us to lay off staff,
those who remain must do the same amount of work with fewer resources. That
puts a strain on everyone. This last round of layoffs cut particularly
deeply into Research & Development, so much so that I have been forced to
make what I fear will be a most unpopular decision for the future of our
company and our game.
From now on, Dungeons & Dragons will be known as Dungeons or Dragons. You
will be allowed to choose between subterranean catacombs and winged,
fire-breathing reptilian creatures of legend, but sadly you will not be able
to combine the two. We simply cannot afford to support both avenues of the
game given our current fiscal situation.
This decision, while difficult, will allow DoD to survive the coming years,
permitting players to imagine journeys under the earth in search of monsters
to fight (as long as they don't fight dragons), or to battle the most
ancient of wyrms (provided that they are located above ground).
Antony adds that referees who choose the Dungeons option may content to
refer to themselves as "Dungeon Masters," while "those other losers" must
begin calling themselves "Dragon Masters" right away.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Monte Cook Secret Project Revealed! You may recall that DMG author Monte
Cook let slip information on a "secret project" that he has been working on
for WotC. Adoring fans managed to learn that this new book is named after a
magic item in the DMG, but other than that precious little was known. Well,
we're a few steps closer today! After months of using their Gather
Information skill (DC 100), agents of the CIA, FBI, and the Hoffmann
Institute managed to hack into WotC's central databanks and uncovered five
titles -- one of which is known to be the name of the "secret project" to be
published later this year. Here they are!
Rod of Wonder: The Gnomish Kama Sutra
Book of Vile Darkness: Pretty Darned Vile
Heward's Handy Haversack: The Handiest Haversack Around
Scroll of Nystul's Magical Aura: 101 Uses for Extremely Lame Treasure
Frost Sickle and Unholy Sap: Lots of Combinations of PHB Weapons with DMG
Special Abilities
Now that we know it's one of these five for sure, perhaps Monte will lower
his guard and let more information slip!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
New d20 Skills Series to Debut: We've had class books. We're getting race
books. We've had books of feats and books of magic. But one area that's been
relatively unexplored in the D20 world is the area of skills -- that is,
until now! D20 publishers Fiery Dark Mongoose Lords are set to publish a new
line of d20 Skills books. Here's an exclusive "sneak peek" at some artwork
from the first in the series, Quintessential Disguise:
<qui ci sono quattro foto>
Is that a masterwork disguise kit in your pocket, or are you just happy to
see me?
Pretty cool, eh? Quintessential Disguise has a scheduled release date of
June 2002, although as usual the product will be pushed back several times,
finally come out in early 2003, and almost live up to the hype. Not to be
outdone, WotC is also planning a line of skill-related books, the first of
which will be called Jumping Through Hoops.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
More Iconic Layoffs: WotC's game designers aren't the only ones being hurt
by WotC's financial troubles. An anonymous scooper from inside the company
informs me that Regdar the Human Fighter was given his pink slip today, less
than two weeks after dwarven cleric Eberk was laid off from WotC. Human
cleric iconic Jozan notes, "Once Eberk was let go, I was pretty sure Regdar
would be next. They couldn't let [dwarven fighter iconic] Tordek go due to
WotC's demihuman quotas. Plus, think about it -- a human fighter? How much
more boring can you get?" Halfling rogue iconic Lidda wasn't surprised at
the move, either, adding that the manly fighter had talked for weeks about
wanting to take an extended vacation "to work on his poetry." Half-orc
barbarian iconic Krusk, though, was visibly moved, grunting, "Me raging on
outside, but me crying on inside."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Dragon Magazine ECLs Article Was In Error: Remember that "preview" of
Effective Character Levels provided in last month's Dragon Magazine? You
know, the one where every Monster Manual critter was assigned an ECL for the
purposes of determining how relatively powerful that critter would be if run
as a PC in a standard D&D game? Well don't put those pages in your
three-ring D&D binder just yet. Here's the author of the article, Red
Richman, with a major correction:
The "Monsters with Class" article in Dragon Magazine #293 was missing one
vital piece of information -- that ECLs are randomly generated. That's
right. The charts provided at the end were just an example of what you could
have rolled. See, you roll your other vital stats, right? Strength, Charisma
... heck, even hit points. Same deal with ECLs. Simply roll a d20 and add
the monster's CR. Voila, instant ECL. When Tooth & Claw [the rumored
forthcoming book on playing monstrous races] comes out, you'll be able to
read about some alternate methods of generating ECLs, but the d20+CR method
is what we recommend for the average gamer.
I'm very sorry this article caused any confusion. We had no idea that the
information on random generation had been left out. Imagine our surprise
when we read messages to the effect that we had been "smoking crack" or had
suffered "serious brain damage." You clearly didn't know that we had just
rolled extremely well on many of the ECLs that particular day.
I dropped Monster Manual author Skippy McWilliams a line to verify this, and
he had this to say:
Hmm, I don't know how to break it to you, but the CRs provided in the MM are
also randomly generated. I'm not allowed to tell you how we arrived at them,
but the calculations were extremely complex and often involved imaginary
numbers.
Looks like I'll have to dig a bit deeper. I'll let you know when I find out
more!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Half-Orcs Got the Shaft: A team of U.S. Justice Department investigators,
after a two-year study, has concluded that half-orcs did, in fact, get the
shaft by the designers of Dungeons & Dragons. Lead investigator Jeremiah
Springfield says:
Though D&D fans long suspected that the half-orc race was on the receiving
end of the shaft, we now have solid evidence to prove that this "shafting"
took place with malice aforethought. We have [D&D co-designer] Jonathan
Treet on tape guffawing and chortling with laughter as he describes the
misery and anguish he hopes to inflict on D&D fans throughout the world by
creating a PC race that is "totally lame."
D&D co-designer Mountie Kook corroborated the story, adding:
The Player's Handbook was pretty much out of my hands. I did try my best to
rectify the situation in the Dungeon Master Guide with that whole "optional
rule" about giving half-orcs the Scent ability, which would have made them a
little more "cool" and added a useful power to boot. But then some editor,
clearly on the take, added the part about gnomes also optionally having the
Scent ability, and suddenly we were right back to square one.
Jonathan Treet, in a statement released by his lawyers, had this rebuttal:
Look, anyone who purposely chose to play a half-orc knew they were setting
themselves up. I mean, do the math! +2 to STR vs. -2 to INT and CHA? It just
doesn't add up to "balance." Combine that with the fact that half-orcs will
actually be worse at Intimidation than a human due to that Charisma penalty,
plus the fact that darkvision is worthless after the party can afford a
measly 90 gp for an everburning torch, and you have yourself one unbalanced,
boring PC race.
On a personal note, given these findings I wish to formally apologize to
anyone I've belittled, badgered, mocked, or chided on the issue of half-orc
shafting over the past two years. You "Rangers Got the Shaft" people,
though, you're still idiots, each and every one of you. Drizzt is kewl!!!
;-)
--
Ciao,
Fiò (once Cudin) IhggerD #9
ICQ #73195974    IHGGer  #944
"Ferire non e' troppo potente."
DO NOT FEED THE TROLLS

From now on, Dungeons & Dragons will be known as Dungeons or Dragons. 
ROTFL
Date un'occhiata anche alle ultime news su
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/dx20020401a
Marco Ferrandi
http://www.kavi.too.it/
http://www.nexusgames.com

From now on, Dungeons & Dragons will be known as Dungeons or Dragons.
Maledetta Hasbro!!
;)
-- 
Igor
www.cumulidineve.it

 March 32, 2002
Non dovevi riportare anche la data... cosi' e' troppo facile :)

 wrote:
ROTFL
Bella quella sul nome :-)
Luca