Have you ever heard the saying, “Your car knows when you have money?” I don’t really have much money, but if I did, I’d buy a big house where we both could live—wait a second, I got off track. I don’t really have much money, but I did budget some for a trip to Origins 2009. However, upon returning from a teaching workshop last week, I discovered a problem with my car that will require several hundred dollars to fix—dollars that I can pretty much only get by canceling my trip to Origins.

So those of you who attend … have fun without me.

Dear friends and fans of the Icosahedrophilia podcast, I may experience a slight delay in pushing episode 19, “The Book of L’aif,” out to you. I’m already a day behind, and can’t predict how much I’ll be able to work on it during the evenings this week, due to stepped-up evening obligations connected to a teaching workshop. I hope that I’ll have episode 19 out in just a couple of days, but I can’t really say for certain.

If everything works out well, though, I’ll have episode 19 out within the week, and then I’ll share a series of “special edition” podcasts featuring actual play from Worldwide D&D Game Day: Monster Manual 2!

Emerald Press recently released the eighth installment of Combat Advantage, presenting the celestial champion paragon path by Shawn O’Leary.

The Good: The path restores to 4e some of the features and flavor of old-school paladins.

The Bad: Some path features, powers, and feat powers seem too strong or misguided, while others need more practical benefits.

The Ugly: Grammatical, spelling, and formatting errors continue to plague the series. Gender-biased language also mars this particular installment.

I have more to say about this …

For strangers visiting an island full of pacifists, the crew of the Broken Promise sure have done a lot of fighting on Karnathi. “The Book of L’aif, Part 5″ (recorded on October 4, 2008) begins with Berrian Grithal, an eladrin wizard, attempting a death save! Please listen now or subscribe via iTunes. This episode features the following segments:

• The Staging Area: I quickly recap Episode 17, and move quickly into the adventure.
• The Weather Report: The PCs finally vanquish the enemy combatants, and then explore the temple of L’aif.
• The Prop Shop: I describe the Dungeon Tiles used to create the scenery for this segment of the adventure, as well as my use of OmniGraffle to plan the dungeons.

I have more to say about this …

I’m very sorry, folks, but it turns out that private individuals cannot legally sell raffle tickets (or exchange them for donations) in California. If you already entered, I’ll contact you individually. I’ll try to figure out another, proper, non-arbitrary way of getting these tokens out to someone who can use them.

If you run D&D 4th edition games, you’ve surely spent some time thinking about skill challenges—whether to use them, how to use them, and so on. Quinn “the Gamefiend” Murphy has done 4e DMs everywhere a great service by setting up the Skillforge, a site to share the theory and practice of designing and running skill challenges. Still in its infancy, this site promises to grow into a wonderful web resource. Check it out, and contribute to it as you can!

A few days ago, I described how I track conditions in my 4e games using acrylic condition tokens manufactured by Litko Aerosystems, available directly from Litko or through resellers like FRP Games. If you like the idea of using such tokens for your own games but you want to do a little comparison shopping, consider also the offerings from Dragonfire Lasercrafts. I personally prefer Litko’s products, but recognize that my tastes don’t necessarily match everybody else’s.

I have more to say about this …

Demogorgon has never really topped my list of favorite monsters, but I happily tore open my Amazon package to see his smiling (?) faces when Monster Manual 2 arrived on Tuesday. Since I usually DM for my D&D group, I always get excited about a new book chock full of monstrous foes to throw at hapless adventurers. MM2 definitely does not disappoint.

The Good: 208 pages of new monsters for D&D games across all tiers of play. Some entirely new creatures debut here, but many entries provide classic D&D monsters (from 1e to 3.5e) with 4e stats and 4e-flavored fluff. Many old favorites reappear in this fashion. Monster Manual 2 synergizes well with the latest set of D&D Miniatures, Dangerous Delves (released on the same day), and breathes new 4e life into older miniatures sets.

The Bad: Of course, I like some of the MM2 monsters better than others, but my tastes won’t match everybody else’s.

The Ugly: I suppose I could complain about reused art, if you really want me to.

Quite simply, Monster Manual 2 rocks, both for cranking up the nostalgia meter and for enriching 4e overall. More than once, I turned a page and exclaimed out loud, “That’s perfect!” I’d call this book a must-have for any DM’s library. ★★★★★

I have more to say about this …

Wizards of the Coast’s latest wave of D&D Miniatures, Monster Manual: Dangerous Delves, hit store shelves yesterday. Ed Katayama, proprietor extraordinaire of A Hidden Fortress in Simi Valley, California, kindly set aside two cases (eight boosters each) for me. As you probably know, the new set differs from previous sets in several significant ways. Most obviously, the packaging now shows off one of the uncommon miniatures. The set contains only 40 miniatures, instead of the 60 that had become customary. WotC still sorts the miniatures in common, uncommon, and rare frequencies; this set includes 16 rares, packed at the rate of one rare per pack. WotC no longer provides statistics for the discontinued skirmish game, but licenses the DDM Guild to produce such cards. However, WotC does include stat block cards for each creature.

The Good: The set covers a broad range of D&D monsters, some not previously touched in the D&D Miniatures line. All figures can be used as monsters in D&D adventures; some can do double duty as PCs (especially after the release of Player’s Handbook 3, which at a minimum includes minotaurs and either githyanki or githzerai as PC races, judging by the cover). The set balances attention between Monster Manual and Monster Manual 2 (released on the same day as Dangerous Delves). Buyers who, inexplicably, don’t own the Monster Manual or Monster Manual 2 can use the included stat cards. The visible minis are particularly well-done. And, oh yeah, the Rust Monster.

The Bad: Long-time collectors of D&D Miniatures will find several retreads (the two goblins, Harpy, Grimlock Minion, Hippogriff, Medusa Archer, Unicorn, Yuan-Ti Fangblade)—new sculpts, but ground that has been covered before. Buyers new to the line won’t mind this at all.

The Ugly: Some of the sculpts continue the cartoonish trend seen in Demonweb (War Devil, for example). Some of the paint jobs fall short (Aspect of Vecna, I’m looking at you).

On the whole, this set bodes well for the future of the D&D Miniatures line. ★★★★

I have more to say about this …