Level Up! Issue #1
Level Up! is a new magazine launched by Goodman Games that features GSL-licensed content for Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition. Now that Wizards of the Coast has turned Dragon and Dungeon magazines into digital-only products, Goodman Games is trying to fill the void, and the $2 cover price makes Level Up! a hard impulse purchase to resist. The least expensive way to get the PDF version is also to buy the print version: the PDF is $4 from online stores, while the print edition includes a code that allows you to download a free copy of the PDF.
The first issue marks a solid debut for Level Up!. While it did not contain anything truly exceptional, there aren’t many gaffes, either. The bulk of issue one seemed to be the work of one man, Editor-in-chief Aeryn Rudel who, near as I can tell, edits Goodman Games’ entire product line. With that workload, it is hard to criticize him for failing to hit a home run first time out, or even for the mistakes I came across. Level Up! #1 was good enough that I will buy future issues, and I expect it will only get better going forward. Even if it doesn’t, it only takes two or three items that I want to use each issue to justify the low cost. It is hard for 4th Edition players to go wrong if they pick up an issue of Level Up!.
The Table of Contents for issue 1 contains:
• Roads to Adventure: Rift of the Hill Giant Thane – a short, delve-like adventure
• PC Pearls: Weapon Focused Warriors – three paragon paths for the martial character classes in the original Players’ Handbook that specialize in the use of a single weapon
• Blackdirge’s Bestiary: Natural-Born Killers – Dinosaurs (Behemoths and Lizardwolves, officially) statted up for your DMing pleasure
• Deities of Aereth: Gorhan – A god from Goodman’s house campaign world, presented with supporting fluff, a Channel Divinity feat, a holy magic item and a paragon path
• Azagar’s Advice for Adventurers: Choose Your Weapon, part I – weapon-related feats, framed by a noted hobgoblin warrior’s commentary on the weapons.
• GM Gems: Fiendish Foes – Three netherworld-related monster templates, with examples of their use.
• Powerskins: Mayhem in Mirahan – examples of tweaking character powers’ fluff to suit different character concepts
• A Picture Tells 1,000 Words: Spurned – An encounter, with the outlines of an entire adventure, developed from an evocative illustration
• D20 Questions: Adrian Pommier – An interview with the Goodman Games freelancer and convention DM.
There are also an editorial, a play advice (with supporting anecdotes) column from Wizards of the Coast staffer Andy Collins, capsule reviews, a toolkit column featuring a random name generator, and a write-in play advice column.
For me, the highlight of the issue was the collection of dinosaurs. While the Monster Manual was thin on several traditional monsters, the lack of dinosaurs (and the silly decision to call them Behemoths) was especially noticeable. This article does an excellent job of plugging the holes, covering everything from the classic Triceratops to the always fashionable raptors. All are solid designs, so the fact that this is a reprint of material from a Goodman PDF product doesn’t bother me in the least. Normally, I would argue that they could all use an additional power or two, but I don’t hold animals to the same design standard as other monster designs. There is a real world counterpart to compare against, so there is less room to create flashy powers and attacks from whole cloth. I cannot wait to unleash velociraptor-riding gnomes or kobolds on my unsuspecting players.
The new templates in GM Gems were well designed and useful. So far, DMs are starved for good templates, and any new ones that are well-balanced are welcome, even if a bit more variety would have been nice (as advertised, all three relate to making monsters touched by the Abyss or the Hells). Each template also comes with an example monster stat block, so we get a demonic troll, a dire boar and a Tiefling mage touched by hellfire. The DMG doesn’t include examples of templates in action, so this is a nice touch.
I am also a fan of Jack99’s capsule reviews of Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition products. While I follow his work on his ENWorld blog, which does nothing to change my opinion that Goodman chose a great reviewer for Level Up. Jack’s reviews are concise and to the point. The selection of reviews is slanted toward Goodman products (and conveniently omits the ones Jack was not as fond of), but it is not a complete house organ. Products from Wizards of the Coast, Open Design and One Bad Egg are also praised. A feature review would be a nice addition, and a little more balance in product selection would help the reviews look more credible, but those are editorial concerns. The reviews themselves are excellent.
Not everything in Level Up! #1 is as good as these three pieces, however. For example, in the PC Pearls article, the level 20 daily attack for the Arbalestier (Ranger) paragon path is extremely weak. It only deals [2W] damage without imposing a condition or ongoing damage, and only +2 to hit as compensation. This is almost identical to the Fighter attack Sure Strike (its damage increases to [2W] at 21st level), which is generally considered the weakest fighter at-will attack. Just eyeballing it, I think [4W] would be strong, but not out of bounds, if you compare it to level 20 striker attacks that permit 3 [2W] attacks in Martial Power.
A couple of the feats in Azagar’s Advice for Adventurers, on the other hand, are a bit overpowered. Whirling Horror is an epic feat for flail-wielders that allows a character to spend a minor action before attacking to reduce the AC of any opponent you hit by 2 (save ends). It even has a prerequisite feat that throws +2 damage into the deal. This might fly as a limited-use power, but I don’t see why a character that is eligible wouldn’t jump at the ability to take it as a feat that can be used at will. Minor actions often go unused (although they are more valuable at Epic tier), so it’s a small price to soften up an opponent.
Other design choices will divide people between those who love them and those who hate them, depending on how attached they are to certain stylistic choices of 4th Edition’s designers. For instance, there is the Disarming Strike feat in the Azagar article (again, for flail). Some will hail it for bringing some lost flavor back into 4th Edition. Others (including myself) will point out that it violates the 4th Edition design principle that attacks and effects should be equally useful against any opponent (barring specific immunity), since many monsters do not use weapons. Since the disarming effect only triggers on a critical hit followed up by a successful secondary attack, going an entire campaign without this feat triggering once is conceivable.
Specific crunch aside, however, my impression of many of the features is that they are good ideas for magazine series, but the execution first time around was a little pedestrian. For example, providing DMs with alternate gods that they can use in their campaign is a nice thought, but the god detailed this issue, Gorhan, is a rather generic god of war, except perhaps for the impression that he is the kind of god of war a neoconservative could love:
“His faith warns against complacency of any kind, for acquiescence — even mere inaction — is one of evil’s greatest opportunities: like casting aside one’s armor when the enemy is hiding. In the faith of Gorhan, peace remains the foremost objective, but peace must also be ever reaffirmed. A follower of He Who Fights First does not wait for her enemies to muster or plot against her; she takes the battle to them to eliminate the threat. Gorhan’s fervent crusade against evil is often criticized by other faiths for being rash, quelling reason in the face of courage. And, indeed, the boldness of Gorhan’s clergy frequently outweighs the wisdom of caution and well-advised reserve. For this reason, the goddess Justicia — Gorhan’s own wife — often tempers his steely initiative with her more judicial counsel; likewise, followers of Gorhan frequently consult Justicia’s clergy. At the same time, Gorhan’s overzealous aggression has made enemy faiths wary of regions united under his holy banner.”
I think the idea behind A Picture Tells 1,000 Words – develop a full-blown encounter and attached storylines form an illustration – is very good. The image chosen for the first effort, however, is a rather bland one, showing some suspicious characters standing around a market. The resulting scenario is a bit better than the picture, and the encounter well crafted, but I hope that future efforts are more colorful. This picture was about equal to a one-line plot hook, not 1,000 words.
There is one series I am rather dubious of. I think the core point of Powerskins is great: it’s not hard to take current game elements (in this case PC powers) and redesign the fluff around them to make something more thematic or colorful, or to suit a different character concept. It would behoove WotC to make this point more strongly sometime. I’m not sure it’s big enough a point to sustain an entire series of articles, though. A single, possibly longish, article explaining how to do it well, with good examples of how experienced designers have done it, would suffice.
In spite of my complaints and nitpicking, I feel Level Up! #1 was worth the $2 (well, $2.50 Canadian) that I spent on it. I can put the delve to good use with a bit of tweaking, and the articles that have problems usually have some good material sprinkled in as well. Blackdirge’s Bestiary and GM Gems are great resources for any Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition DM. I will continue to buy Level Up. It doesn’t take much good material to justify the expenditure. Besides, most magazines take a few issues to really find their sea legs. I think Level Up! could, with good writers and a willingness to wander further from traditional D&D formula, become as good as Dragon Magazine was in the 80s.