Last weekend, at the 5 th installment of the Roludothon - a quarterly social gaming event in Montreal, I've had a change of trying out Dread.

Dread is a very different breed of RPG than any I've ever encountered - its core mechanic revolves around Jenga.

D&D Birthday Party

DMed for a group of 12 year-olds this week-end.

I had already been DM for them 2 years ago and have been trying to schedule something with them ever since. This game was a birthday request from the birthday boy himself – a request I find myself very happy to oblige.

I decided to run a quick level 1 scenario from the Chaos Scar (you can find it Chaos Scar D&DI) a simple kill evil creatures scenario.

Before we start the game, birthday boy told me:

Eric, this time, I’ll try want to assert myself and take a more active role

Fine, I thought. This’ll be cool.

Learning to play Mouse Guard has me figuratively standing on my head, my feet helplessly flailing in the air in desperate attempts of achieving that sacrosanct performance level I always strive for.

Truth be told, from my understanding, Mouse Guard plays in the exact opposite way I have ever played RPGs.

MG is not exactly about you playing a character that reacts to its environment - its about you and your buddies working together to build a story.

This should - and could - be my holy grail for sharing narrative control.

But it seems that it also wants to be some sort of torture device aiming to make me feel inadequate at something I used to feel I was good at.

Kind of like high school.

Claw of Elevation R&D Report,

by Kreegle Hacktardy, head engineer,

Description of the item:

The Claw of Elevation is a foot-long magical rod. The rod has a leathery texture and its bottom half can be gripped as solidly as any sword.

The rod can be aimed as easily as a hand crossbow. When activated, the top part of the rod splits from the bottom part and travels at great speed towards its destination.

Fitting a rope to link both parts proved to be impractical - we have tried fitting a tube of holding within the device, but the containment ward reacted poorly to the separation and the rope was banished to an unidentified realm.

We have finally managed to link both parts of the rod magically - there's no more rope to handle. This also rids us of the previously reported problems of getting tangled in the rope, or of fitting the rope back in the tube before being able to reuse the device.

Drawback of this solution: the current device can not be separated by more than 50 feet. Passed this distance, the top part sling shots back to the bottom part, causing probable injuries.

We recommend pairing the Claw of Elevation with the Hocksprocket Gloves of Holding to prevent injuries related to misfiring the device.

Once the top parts collides with its target, three claws extend from it and attaches itself to most porous material.

So far, we have successfully attached to various types of rocks, bricks and wood. The claws do not seem able to attach to solid metal, such as certain type of shields.

At any time, the wielder can activate the rod again to reunite both ends - if the wielder has gripped the bottom part of the rod solidly enough, he will be pulled towards the top part of the rod. Again, we strongly suggest that this item be paired with the Hocksprocket Gloves of Holding to prevent unnecessary bruises of free falls from using the Claw of Elevation.

Maximum range: 50 ft. Maximum weight pulled : 800 lbs

Advanced Techniques

When testing the device on goblin test subjects, to determine the effects of grappling a live being instead of a building wall, our technicians found interesting unforeseen characteristics of the Claw of Elevation.

If the wielder has more weight than the Claw's target, the target will be pulled towards the wielder.

While this might be bad news if the wielder has attached to a loose brick or boulder, it also allows to capture smaller live targets and bring them closer to range.

However, if the target is heavier, the wielder will be pulled towards its target, which might not be a tactically strong maneuver.

In any case, the wielder which does not intend to move, should plan his feet firmly to prevent chances of accidental movement.

Once we work out the remaining kinks in the Claw of Elevation, I would recommend starting a new project towards foot gear that prevent unwanted mobility of its wearer.