From the Pit

Hello, and the Warmest Season’s greetings from the OP pit. It’s a great opportunity to poke my head up and let you know that we’re a hive of activity these days.

It’s a great opportunity to poke my head up and let you know that we’re a hive of activity these days. We’ve been very busy getting ready for the hand-off in organized play that’s going to occur at XP (at least functionally, anyway). This means that we really need to have our own floor rules for tournament play—something D&D Miniatures has had before, but which has always really been borrowed from other systems.

The problem has always been that the past floor rules spend a lot of time on issues that aren’t really relevant to the game, while core issues (such as slow play) remain inadequately addressed. So we’ll certainly have these available for everyone to look at with the coming of XP

Formats

The extended plan at this time is that competitive organized play will focus on 100- and 200-point constructed and limited play, though we will add additional formats with time. One interesting twist you’ll see right away is that we’re going to see Huge creatures become legal in 200-point play. Expect to see the Standard and Limited DCI formats used, with Vintage reserved for future expansion.

Which game? Whichever you want

My recent focus has been on developing the revised D&D Miniatures edition rules, but it’s clear there’s still a lot of excitement for 1.0. As soon as we select our design lead for 1.0, I’ll be working closely with that individual and their team to come up sanctionable stats for the new figures. Lots of applications are in, from all over the world, and from very high quality individuals. Hopefully, we’ll have a name to announce prior to XP.

Maps

A lot of folks have expressed issues with the current maps, and with first turn area effects. At the current time, we have many mechanisms in the pipeline which will help to ameliorate these effects. These include rules, new powers on figures to limit the impact of these attacks, and, of course, maps. We will be bringing back Dragondown Grotto and Thieves’ Quarter, and you can expect Temple of the Unseeing Eye to become legal soon. Moreover, there are any number of imaginative but accessible ways we might use Teleport Temple should we decide to bring it back.

Playing for Fun

Finally, I’d like to touch on the issue of “fun play.” Lets face it—all play should be fun. Nonetheless, a major goal of the guild is to continue to make the game accessible, and by developing our own “DCI-lite”system, I think we can track games and reward guild membership for playing.

This system won’t be used for competitive play, per se, but could be used to track results for campaign play—even on a worldwide basis. This will be a great tool to drag friends in to increase D&D Miniatures play, and is also where I expect Epic play fitting in, at least initially.

Lastly, due to the cancellation of the 2009 Starter Set product, we’re working on an updated basic rulebook that anyone can download and simply begin playing with. Though it won’t be the ultimate authority used in high-level tournaments, it should agree in all respects with the CRG.

But when?

So when can you expect to see some of this? When can you get your hands on it? The “born on” date will be February 2009. Lots to do and so little time. So, back to the pit for me…