"I got killed by Jonathan Tweet": a look inside Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition's lead designer

I'm at Origins 2000 in Columbus, OH, and besides GO's business manager's mad driving, I'm feeling pretty safe in my skin. Walking among the masses, everyone seems to be having a good time, with no sense of malice in the air. My ego is swelled to maximum proportions (or so I thought), as I've met some of the industry greats and talked to them--they're real people--and my backpack is swelled as well from the undeniable lure of the Wizard's Attic booth. I'm wondering around, and I see my own personal holy grail.

The Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition Player's Handbook. Sitting in a bulletproof case. With no line.

I'm there quicker than lightning, poring over the pages, trying to glean as much information as possible. (There'll be a complete review in the next couple of days, but for now, let me tell you that the production value is amazing. I've never seen a role-playing game this good looking. The art for the two-bladed sword alone is worth $20.) Our own Ed Healy and Nick Lalone are with me, and Nick taps me on the shoulder all of a sudden.

"Dude! I'm communing. What the..." I start to say, as I look in the direction Nick's pointing. It's Jonathan Tweet, my hero. And he's teaching a kid, his 10-year-old nephew Micah, to play Pokemon. "Oh... my... god... We've got to meet him." Really, I've got to meet him, but Ed and Nick can tag along as long as they don't interrupt. I walk over, and he's still in the middle of the game. There's no way I'm going to be so crass as to interrupt. So I wait. And wait a little longer, butterflies in my stomach. And he notices me.

"Oh, hi. What's going on?" The first thing you notice about Jonathan Tweet is how nice he is to everyone. That overall happy feeling you get reading Everway--that's all Tweet. The second thing you notice is his incredible resemblance to the WCW pro wrestler Goldberg, but that might be because he was standing right next to a full-size cardboard poster of the wrestler. (I can't get this image out of my head all day. "You can't mess with my 3rd Edition! Bring on your d6's and d10's! Bring it on! Come get some of my d20, huh!")

"Well, um, Mr. Tweet, hi, I'm Clinton R. Nixon, and I'm here with the Gaming Outpost." I ramble on, giving him numbers of page views per month, and unique visitors, and things he's not so interested in. "We wanted to do an article or two on 3rd Edition and wondered--well, we thought it'd be cool if--well, you could run a game for us tomorrow."

"Oh, sure--I'm running them all day. How about after lunch? Just come by and we'll go for it."

I'm excited now. I go tell Ed and Nick, and we head off, visions of goblins and kobolds dancing in our heads. We have to go meet Ron Edwards of Sorcerer fame later, so we head out for some liquid refreshment (and for me to giggle like a teenager that just asked a cheerleader on a date--and she accepted.)

The next day

We've got Sorcerer Ron Edwards (as I like to call him) in tow, and wake up relatively early to hit the dealer's room again. After some coffee and danishes, the spending spree begins again. As I talk to people (and brag slightly about our game with Jonathan Tweet), I get the word on the street: Jonathan's a killer DM. PC's fall before him like so many flies.

The nice Jonathan Tweet? A killer DM? Hmm. I start to wonder if the niceness's just an act, but if he wants to bring it on, I'm game. We take Ron over to meet him, and he's still the nicest guy I've met here. Ron gives his obligatory speech (trust me--if you were at Origins, you heard it), "Hello, I'm Ron Edwards, and I have a little independent game on the internet. It does pretty well; it pays for itself."

Jonathan seems interested. "Oh, really? What's it called?"

"It's called Sorcerer, and it's based on the premise that magic isn't real. Instead, 'magicians' are demon-summoners..."

"Sorcerer? I've heard of that--I think I've been to your site."

Two of us are under Jonathan Tweet's spell now. You can see Ron's eyes sort of glaze over with pride as the man behind Everway, Ars Magica, Over the Edge, and the biggest RPG of all time, D&D3E, just acknowledged his game. If you've ever played D&D, you're familiar with the wizard spell Charm Person, and evidently, Jonathan Tweet's pretty aware of it, too.

Jonathan and Ron chat about game theory for a while, but Jonathan's got things to do and we're hungry. As we get up, I lean over to Jonathan. "I heard a little rumor earlier. Someone told me you like to kill PC's."

"Where'd you hear that?" To be honest, I can't really remember, but the twinkle in his eyes tells me the truth. He's intrigued. He thinks that maybe--maybe--these schmo's might be worthy opponents.

"Oh, nowhere. Just don't go easy on us." He grins, and I know I'm in for a good time.

The game

Lunch is sitting in my belly like a small animal trying to claw its way out. The food court lacks that special something--quality. We're all ready for the game, though, and are back to the Wizards of the Coast booth in no time. We see Jonathan setting up, and a few other people getting in on it. Nick's got an interview to do, and we've got no time to wait for these chairs to fill up with other people, so I grab Ed and Ron quickly and give them the scoop. "Watch out here--he's a killer DM." They both look at me a little incredulously, but go with it.

We sit down, and choose characters. Ed's got a monk, Ron's saddled with a fighter (the same one you see in all the 3rd Edition preview art), and I've got "Hennet the Sorcerer." The name's lame, but I've been itching to check out this Sorcerer class, and I've got to say that it rocks.

For those of you who haven't got the scoop, the Sorcerer is a spell-caster that has no need to prepare spells. As drawbacks, he doesn't have nearly the variety of spells at his disposal, and gains new spell levels slower, but the levels he does have, he has many more spells in. For example, I was 4th level, and had 7 1st-level spells and 4 2nd-level spells at my disposal, along with 7 0-level cantrips. I only knew 3 1st-level spells, though, and 1 2nd-level spell.

WotC's trying to run as many games as possible at Origins, so Jonathan tells us right up front that the game will only last for an hour, and will focus on combat, so we can really see how the system works.

We begin in a dungeon, in a rather small hallway, where some skeletons on the march decide to waylay us. With a few swipes from Ron's fighter and Ed's monk, with backup from our friends the thief and cleric, the skeletons are out in no time. Skeletons, as well as most creatures, are more powerful than they were in 2nd edition--that was clear. But as for Jonathan being a killer DM--if this was it, we could take it.

We open the only door in the hallway, and find ourselves in a huge room. Off near the end, we can see the door is sort of L-shaped, with a bunch of garbage around the far walls. We start to sneak forward, our thief leading the way, when we see movement in the trash. We're officially creeped out now. We can hardly see where we're going, and something's sneaking around out there.

We decide to edge around the corner, as close as we can to the wall. We're about halfway there when this lizard-thing the size of a horse leaps out of the garbage and hoses us down with fiery breath.

Great. A dragon. I'm at 2 hit points and not playing around now--I'm running. Our brave fighter and monk, Ron and Ed go to save the day, while the thief tries to sneak around a bit. (An exciting bit for thieves, or rogues, as they're called, in 3rd Edition: if you can flank your opponent, you can do what's called a sneak attack. It's the backstab of old, but much easier to pull off.) I'm heading for the opposite corner of the room.

This dragon is lurching around like it's got some sort of nerve disorder. I can't figure it out, and neither can anyone else. It doesn't really matter too much, as the young dragon whips its wings over its head, clawing at Ron's fighter with both of them, raking his across the face and chest. I decide it's time to start launching things. With a quick look at my character sheet, I see a wand of magic missiles and a wand of cause fear. I bring out the former, and launch a barrage toward the creature.

Jonathan says, "Your magic missiles arc through the air, hitting the dragon, and fizzle out."

Um. Wonderful.

This nutty dragon with spell resistance is thrashing around wildly. Ron's fighter hits it square in the head with a shattering sword-blow. Jonathan continues, "Your sword cuts deep into the beast's head, but as you pull your sword away, you see the wound already starting to close."

The rumors are officially true. Jonathan is a killer DM. The dragon cries out, "Stupid Prime mortals! I'll get rid of you all, and then I'll eat that sorcerer in the corner for dessert."

With that, he rips into the thief, laying him out across the ground like so much meat. Ed's monk leaps into the fray with both fists coming down across the dragon, slamming into him. He rolls--maximum damage. "Your fists slam into the dragon's side, but you don't feel any give. He hardly seems to have noticed."

I heard the reference to "Prime mortals" and am starting to wonder what's up. Apparently our dragon friend isn't from around these parts. He continues the carnage as I think about using that cause fear wand--if it works, it gets rid of the thing, as opposed to the magic missile. I go for it, and it breaks through the spell resistance. I'm riding the wave now, and Jonathan grabs his 20-sider. "And for the saving throw& passed. The dragon seems unaffected." My luck can't be any worse at this point.

I keep seeing Hennet the sorcerer with whipped cream on top of him, and this dragon with a bib and fork. I have nothing left to lose, I think, as I bring out the wand of magic missiles again. Ron and Ed are still left standing, and are trying to hack away on this thing, causing minimal damage. I fire again, and it works! The bloodshed gets worse and worse, but Ron and Ed are barely holding on--the other two are already unconscious. I fire missile after missile and they're all working. The spell resistance keeps failing as globes of light wrack this thing back and forth. Ron goes down, unconscious as well, but everyone is stabilizing by this point.

(Interesting damage rules in 3rd Edition. They're what you've seen before in 2nd Edition, with three changes. The "Hovering on Death's Door" rule is no longer optional. At 0 hit points, you're still standing, but barely. You can try to get away, but any strenuous action puts you at -1 hp, where to start losing hit points like everyone else. This is great for a heroic last thrust scene, where you collapse immediately afterwards. The third change is stabilization--every round, if you have less than 0 hit points, you have a 10% chance of stabilizing and not losing any more hit points. You're still unconscious, but you won't die.)

I keep firing the missiles, and Ed's keeping this thing back, but not for long. I keep noticing that it can hardly stand straight. I hope to put it out of its misery, but it keeps on clawing at Ed's monk and looking at me with that hungry look in its eye. It rises up for what I know will be a deadly rake at Ed and more magic missiles streak across the room, slamming it into the ground. I breathe in deeply, hoping it's really dead.

It shudders and dies, and I'm elated. I look around the room at my party sprawled out everywhere and Ed's monk and I help them to their feet--we've got a long trip home. Jonathan actually doesn't seem disappointed that none of us died. He congratulates us and goes on to explain a little, "In the 3rd Edition Monster Manual, there are templates you can put on each creature to make a unique creature. For example, that dragon was 'Infernal,' which means it was born in the Lower Planes. That's why it had spell resistance and damage reduction, and made those comments about 'Prime mortals.'" This seems like the coolest idea in the world to me, although I could have sworn from that encounter that 'Infernal' means that it kicks ass. I'm really looking forward to seeing other templates like 'Undead.' I can have undead stirges and undead wolverines. He goes on to tell us that all monsters in 3E have ability scores, like characters. The Monster Manual has average ability scores for creatures in it, but you can roll for them as well. Jonathan rolled this infernal red wyrmling's Dexterity on 3d6 and got a 4--that explains its very un-dragonish clumsiness. (The monster will be in an upcoming Dungeon adventure Jonathan's writing, so look for it--it's one tough little guy.)

Jonathan's got official things to do, and has to go, but we all manage to thank him. I get him to sign my Over the Edge book, and Ron asks him to come have dinner with us. I was more than a little surprised that he had time to, but he accepted, and we're all set, heady on our victory over Jonathan Tweet's beast. I'm feeling great about myself, reveling in our success, and our game with the master, when I look down at the inside cover of OtE.

"I'll kill you next time. Jonathan Tweet."

Oh. Crap.

The showdown

We meet Jonathan outside the exhibitors' hall that evening and head off across the street to a local pub to eat. The time to wait is atrocious, but he's very cordial and we're finally seated. I found out yet another important thing about Jonathan Tweet here: he can take the spicy food. We both ended up ordering some sort of "Creole Burger." I bite into it, and as the flames lap my tonsils, I look up to him munching away and carrying on with Ron. I'm choking back tears over here.

I'm watching my back, but Jonathan seems to have meant the "I'll kill you" thing in a purely joking sense, as he laughs along with all of us. He even manages to boost my ego a little further, as I hand him a business card with my e-mail address on it, and he recognizes the web address on it: Gargoyle13.com. "Oh--aren't you the guys who did Frankenstein3000? I saw that the other day, and thought it was interesting, as I thought it might go beyond what the D20 license permits." He doesn't seem too displeased that it might break the license, and I'm once again beaming, my guard completely down. Little did I know that I was getting set up for the fall.

We finish dinner, and Jonathan's nice enough to invite us to hang with him in the hotel bar. I guess we're decently fun people, and he's a nice guy, but he's pretty much the star of this convention--it's easy to forget that this guy created the 3rd edition of Dungeons and Dragons when he's being this nice to you.

The hotel bar is covered in swarmy gamers and we're no exception. I've never seen so much geeking out as we discuss everything from the validity of meta-plots to why gnomes make the most kick-ass wizards in 3rd Edition (which they do. Combine their innate spellcasting ability with the +1 to AC and +1 to attack because they're small creatures and they rock. Plus, they've got a +2 to Constitution, so they get +1 to hit points every level as well. As long as you're not going to multi-class, both gnomes and halflings kick elves around any day as spellcasters in 3rd Edition. Jonathan Tweet thinks so, too.)

The coolest part of the night to me had to be when I asked him how he got started in game design. I've read a lot of interviews, and have heard the same things as you: he started with Ars Magica with Lion Rampant, and Over the Edge was a sort of cosmic mistake. He created it just to play with his friends, and thought it was too strange and obscene to ever get published. That's all true, but Ars Magica was not his first game, not by a long shot.

"So how'd you get started in game design?" I ask, taking a long sip off my Coke.

"Well, back when I was about 12, I guess, I was playing D&D, and one day I realized--I could do better than this. D&D, and everything else out there at the time, well, sucked, in a lot of ways. So, I wrote my first game, Have Laser, Will Travel. It was fun--space rogues, and rayguns."

This gets my wheels spinning--if somehow I can get him to send me his notes on this--it's the perfect article for RPGevolution, my gaming e-zine. Unfortunately, he says he's probably not got the notes, but I'm still thinking that it would make the perfect D20 System game. (And I would absolutely love to help write it.)

In awe of this revelation--I love over-the-top space fantasy, with 50's sleek ships and rayguns--I don't really know what to say. Luckily (or unluckily, as I found out), Sorcerer Ron Edwards has an idea--Slasher.

Slasher

's an small-press card game based around 80's slasher films. It looks like it was made in someone's dorm and is more fun than most games out there today. Jonathan's game for it, and we deal out the cards. You all play clueless victims in the 'film,' and the point is to either figure out which one of you is the killer, and kill him or her, or be the killer yourself and kill everyone. The coolest part is that no one ever knows who the killer is--anyone can be the killer at any time.

We're playing a while, and Nick and Ron are hacking away at each other, with Ed, Jonathan, and me all kind of staying out of it. I end up getting hit with an axe in the basement, and start to get into the game more. Unfortunately, that garners enemies pretty quickly. Before I know it, I've taken two hits, and only have one left.

A couple of tense turns pass, as everyone manages to avoid the killer. I've got a pretty good hand, and think I'm ready for anything.

Then I see that same glint in Tweet's eye I saw before. The "killer DM" look. Everything flashes back--the sly smile, the infernal dragon blasting me, the front cover of my copy of Over the Edge--it's endgame.

Jonathan controls the killer, and sends him after me with a chainsaw. I play a movement card--I run to the bathroom. Ron throws down "Locked Door." I look up--that dark sorcerer! He's in on it!

I throw down the "Key" card, thinking I'm safe. Then Ed throws down "Lost." I'm going nowhere. The buzz of the chainsaw is in my ears, and suddenly the smell of burning flesh is everywhere as I fall, finally, to the precocious killer.

I look over at Jonathan, knowing I'm defeated. "Gotcha."

Clinton R. Nixon is news editor of the Gaming Outpost (www.gamingoutpost.com) and editor of RPGevolution (www.rpgevolution.com) and thinks Jonathan Tweet is the absolutely nicest game designer he's ever met, and designs some great games on top of that. And he still wants to see Have Laser, Will Travel by Jonathan Tweet and Clinton R. Nixon someday.