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AICN TABLETOP: Monster Manual 2! M:TG Planechase!
Hola all. Massawyrm here.
MONSTER MANUAL 2
Well, the muzzle is finally off and I can talk about Monster Manual 2. And hot damn what an MM2 it is. Unlike previous editions, 4E was built around a number of principles – financial, philosophical and fundamental – with a clear vision and direction for the edition right out of the gate. One of the things they learned late in 3E was that core books outsold other D&D books by a wide margin. PHB2 and DMG2 both outsold everything else released around them. And it was then that they realized how strong the branding of Monster Manual, Players Handbook and Dungeon Master Guide really was. Which is why we’re seeing a rebranding of the titles to become yearly releases. In 3.5, the Monster Manual was the one core book that saw 6 incarnations (5 Monster Manuals and the Fiend Folio which kept the format with a different throwback of a name.) Problem was that by book three they were pretty much out of expanding core monsters and had to make up new monsters as they went along. Sometimes they were instant classics like MM3’s Boneclaw (which made it to the 4E MM). Other times they were evil shadow squirrels.
Well, This new focus has led to WotC holding back some classic monsters – monsters that many felt were part of their core D&D experience. Well much like PHB2 gave us back the Bard, Barbarian and Druid, so too does MM2 deliver scads of our old friends back to us. It is safe to say that, at least for lifelong D&D players, the new MM2 is a MUST OWN. There are so many classic, vintage monsters – so many critters that many of us have 3rd Ed pre-painted minis of – that the book is essential for those looking for the old school experience with the new ruleset. So, without further ado, I give you the old favorites you’ll find in here.
Ankheg, Giant Ants, Barghest, Behir, Bullywugs, Cockatrace, Couatl, Darkmantle, Devas, Metallic Dragons, Duergar, Frost Giants, Stone Giants, Bone/chain/clay and Iron Golems, Gauths, Gray Renders, Krenshar, Marut, Black Pudding, Green Slime, Remorhaz, Rust Monster, Winter Wolf, Wood Woad and Xorn. This is by no means a complete list – just the ones that I know folks have been clamoring for or will be excited to see 4E versions of. Of these the Rust Monster seems to be generating the most excitement, and they don’t disappoint, giving a mechanic that is both nasty and fair. I, on the other hand, did a little dance when I saw the Frost giants finally show back up. Those who read my original review will note my serious displeasure at their exclusion from the core book. They show up here as a lvl 17 critter with a lvl 19 controller version and a lvl 20 Huge Frost Titan (elite brute).
Of course the sexy cover model is going to kick up some dust. Demogorgon, everyone’s favorite two-headed demon prince, is back and gets the same treatment as Orcus in MM1. He’s a lvl 34 Solo with a number of underlings with which you can build an entire campaign around. Lovecraft fans will freak over the awesomeness of his lvl 32 (Solo soldier) ally DAGON. There’s a collection of heroic tier underlings and several epic level bosses, but sadly no paragon tier activity. Good thing there are already a number of paragon level demons, as well as several here.
My favorite new creation is something that will look VERY familiar to Warhammer 40k fans – a Nurglesque creature called a Pod Demon that spawns small versions of itself out of pussy boils and then hurls them at opponents. Gross, effective and loaded with cool, fun to play mechanics. And speaking of demons, the update of the Dretch is SPECTACULAR. 3rd ed really kind of punked this nasty minion of the abyss, leaving him not only with crappy stats but a miniature that looked more like a melting cow than a dretch. Well, now he’s a lvl 2 Brute can deal 2d6+2 damage on a hit, has an aura that deals a point of damage any time a character makes a standard or move action adjacent to one (which stacks…ew), but also has a killer death effect which leaves a lingering death cloud that deals damage. They. Are. Gross. And a great, terrifying low level encounter. I’m chalking them up as one of my favorite Heroic tier monsters next to the Chillborn Zombie.
The other super swank addition to the book is the 4 new beholders. An Eye of Frost to go with MM1s Eye of Flame, signaling that we probably haven’t seen the end of low Paragon level Beholders, the aforementioned gauth, a lvl 25 Eye of Chaos and a super supreme epic level badass, the 29th lvl Beholder Ultimate tyrant. He’s one bad dude, weighing in at 1080 hp, a 41 AC and a disintegration eye beam that has a linger 15 Ongoing damage (save ends) followed by an aftereffect of 10 Ongoing damage (save ends.) Yeah. He’s a tad nasty.
The HUMAN entry (all six pages of it) are filled with a staggering 14 different statblocks ranging from the comical Insane Nobel to the awesome lvl 10 Pirate Captain and his lvl 9 Pirate crew. Metallic Dragons see the same treatment as their chromatic brethren in MM1 with a few added perks. First of all, no longer restricted by alignment, each Dragon is given interesting motivations that maintain their fluff while presenting real reasons a party might come at odds with one. Secondly the five metallics are different than you might be accustomed to. They are Adamantine, Copper, Gold, Iron and Silver. Gone (until Draconomican 2 no doubt) are Brass and Bronze from the classic lineup. Not that they’ll be particularly missed by most.
The one thing that can be definitely said about MM2 is that there is a startling lack of new creations. While there are plenty of new variants within the ranks here, this book seems focused more upon revisiting the classic greats than it does trying to carve out its own niche with new monsters with hopes of becoming classics in their own right. It’s a book filled with old friends given new stats and mechanics that will make revisiting them a thrilling and full experience. If you’ve played previous editions of D&D then you absolutely will want and need this book. It fills a lot of holes in the classic D&D lineup and has a new toy feel doused in nostalgia. GET THIS BOOK.
MAGIC: THE GATHERING PLANECHASE
Looks like M:TG has something exciting on the horizon. WotC is releasing a new card type – oversized cards that sit in their own deck and alter the rules of the game in what appears to be the same manner of an ENCHANT WORLD. These cards are meant to represent the different shifting realities of travelling between worlds while dueling. Here’s the announcement.
Today on the Magic Arcana, Wizards of the Coast announced a new product for Magic: The Gathering. Planechase is a whole new way to experience your favorite game. This multiplayer, casual format simulates planeswalking by adding a new card to the game. Through this brand new card type, players can battle each other across a variety of diverse worlds, each with its own unique effect on the game.
For more details see the Arcana announcement or view below.
-There will be four Planechase Game Packs released on September 4th, 2009: Elemental Thunder, Metallic Dreams, Strike Force, and Zombie Empire.
-Each game pack will contain 10 all-new plane cards, a ready-to-play 60-card deck, a six-sided planar die and a Planechase strategy insert with multiplayer rules.
-Each of the 60-card decks will include 8 rares, and will be composed of cards from throughout Magic's history - including a preview card from Zendikar.
-The 10 oversized plane cards comprise a planar deck. They feature all-new artwork depicting some of the more exotic realms of the Magic multiverse.
-Each of the cards in the 60-card decks will be black-bordered and tournament legal. This means that these cards are legal for use in any tournaments where the original printings are still legal.
-Planechase release events will be held September 4-6, 2009. Watch magicthegathering.com this summer for details.
-Initial Concept and Game Design: Brian Tinsman (lead), Aaron Forsythe, Peter Knudson, and Kenneth Nagle
-Final Game and Deck Development: Mike Turian (lead), Dave Guskin, Peter Knudson, Scott Larabee, and Mark Purvis, with contributions from Mark L. Gottlieb
-MSRP: $19.99
Curious to see how this pans out and if it will spawn a tournament type of its own, be used only in fun games or become the standard for all tournies. Looks like we’ll find out come September.
Alright, that’s it for game writing this week. Back to movie reviewing.
Until next time friends, smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em.
Massawyrm
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Readers Talkback
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My goodness...
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There's a cool picture of one in the Dungeon 'Steal This Hook' for this week, and a web search claims that they were in the 1st Edition Fiend Folio. While I didn't own the FF (my friends had it, I had MM2), I'd perused it multiple times. Yet I'm drawing a complete blank. I blame the DM. I wonder if they follow the Raven Queen?<p> The more I read about MM2, the more likely I'm buying it next week. For whatever reason, it's the monster manuals I enjoy flipping through when bored (don't even have PHB2 yet) and there are a lot of cool monsters forthcoming in MM2. I really hope the Borders coupon next week is 30% or 40% off ...
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OK, now I know that I'm hallucinating due to waiting-for-lost-caused sleep deprivation...
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Kenkus are a D&D classic. Many people always got them mixed up the other bird monster race, the Aarakocra. I remember Kenku mostly from Oriental Adventures myself, but they were definitely an old FF Tome monster. Fiend Folio produced so many of the game's awesome classic monsters and some classic moments of players cowering in fear whenever the GM reached for the dreaded blue book. My favorite's still the Wolf-in-Sheep's-Clothing. The picture for it was great. The new MM2 sounds awesome, only way it would be better is if it had Vegepygmies.
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...in the original MM2 blew me away.
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Didn't play OA that much, that's why it wasn't immediately accessible in the ChrTh memory bank. Thanks Thenedain!
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or never flip through it at the store? I need to pick that up stat.
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That first paragraph does a lot to sum up what's wrong with D&D4e. I think I will keep using my old D&D Cyclopedia. Everything you need to play D&D in one hardcover book with no fucking yearly update/rebuy plans. It's all there in one book. You guys have fun looking up dragons across 3 or 4 different monster manuals?
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There's always been multiple MM hardcovers.
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as someone who only got into this 3 weeks ago I'm happy.
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I mostly just play casually as well as my friends but I've been thinking about joining some tourneys.
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oh wait, no...the idea sucked then too.
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of this section to AICN: WOTC?
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I foresee failure with this plane card idea. Meta-game changes rarely go over well with the hardcore playing population.
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I agree but I'm willing to give it a try, teh cascade mechanic just introduced in alara reborn is a pretty good addition and really jazzed up my decks.
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The plane cards will have game-wide effects. I don't see how'd you be able to design a deck to take full advantage of one (I'm presuming either: a) you can change planes during the game or b) it is a random choice at the beginning of the game that stays the whole match) but you'll still need to prepare for potential effects (especially negative ones).<p> Obviously I'll reserve judgement until more news is released, but I'm just not getting a good vibe from this one.
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though reading through it all again, it looks like it's just another multiplayer gimmick(I.e. the new 5 player mode alara reborn showed off in it's fat pack guide) and a excuse to reprint some classic cards and market some premade Ready to play decks. Also get people who want early grabs at the next real release of cards.
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finally a visually well done and easy to jump into game with online play and HD graphics.
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Monsters were great. Wolf-in-Sheep's-Clothing, Vegepygmies, Aurumvorax, Man-Traps. <p> My favorite though was the Froghemoth. Damn they were nasty.
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more beholders !!! black pudding !! and the good ol' rust monster... i'm a happy dork. i'm still holding back hope for the return of the aurumvorax though... i was never a fan of "good guy" dragons, but...meh... thanks for the heads up. i'll NOT be waiting till next weekend to pick this up now. :) keep 'em coming massawyrm
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Hell yeah! There's another monster that's gotta return. With a mini to go with it. Giant tentacle frog beast... what's not to like? Also, apparently I completely missed the fact that in 4E, dragons aren't necessarily good or evil. I'm currently working up a campaign for my group of extremely old school friends and that little tidbit will throw them for a severe loop. Gotta wedge that in somehow.
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Although I still don't like the changes to alignment for players, I do like the flexibility the alignment change gives to DMs
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how many people here play magic? <p> and is chrth something like short for patrick chapin? :p <p> as for this plane cards... the only good thing about this is that they are oversized, and not able to be but in graveyard. in other words, not errating goyf and making him 9/10. <p> other then that, it might be a fun casual multiplayer format that will have nothing to do with competitive scene. like emperor or (as some of you already pointed out), vanguard. <p> oh, and if they decide to bring it to mtgo, I can already see 8 player queues infinitely stuck with 2-3 players. like kalidostone and every other "fun" casual format they came up with (other then momir basic... which, just as jhoira, ruled. until they killed it).
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And no, not short for that at all :)
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I play Magic casually with friends and almost always multiplayer, so this new set might be pretty cool for us. However, it sounds ALOT like the old "Global Effects/Global Enchantment" variant from years and years ago which we already play. It's a fun variant, essentially every couple of turns you pull a card from a big deck loaded with global effects ( Wrath of God, Furnace of Rath, Shatterstorm, etc. ) and it messes with the players accordingly. Tends to make the players play very aggressively because they never know if the next Global Effect card will destroy all their hard earned defenses. Though sometimes the random factor can really dogpile a player ( We once had a Shatterstorm and an Armageddon fire back to back on a player using Mirrodin artifact lands ) it tends to make a very level playing field. We tried using that variant with Vanguard a couple of times but that was an epic explosion. Still, I've been pretty disappointed with WotC's special Magic sets of late ( FtV:Dragons was okay, but Divine vs. Demonic was pretty lame IMO ) and this one will probably end up being a pass for me unless it offers something truly exciting.
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Is that really necessary?
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Yes. They give some very inventive "powers" to humans making them very interesting opponents at higher level play. These aren't scads of low level scrubs. The pirates alone will make for some AWESOME high Heroic level play encounters.
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I was getting 3e MM5 flashbacks
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I have a long and arduous on-again, off-again relationship with MTG. Started with Revised, left after Ice Age, came back in for 7th edition, left after Kamigawa, and then about 6 months ago I got an urge to buy cards. The only problem is, I have absolutely no one to play with -_-;. Yea, I know of a few Friday Night Magic places around, but... I've got better shit to do on a Friday night. I just want to be able to shuffle up and have a quick game every once in awhile, flex those strategy muscles and use my imagination a bit. Alas... I miss my old tabletop gamer buddies from college. Those were the days..
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